Approximately twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the organization from scratch has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this group, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
