Approximately one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that passes minds are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all tackling different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this nimble methodology will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
