Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has entailed a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of completing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the program at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
