A little more than one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, 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 change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the looming critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The success of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
