Just over twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the official approval as F1's newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the program in a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
