🔗 Share this article

Just over one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and has a amused expression when considering the journey.

“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”

An Unprecedented Challenge

Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into F1.

“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”

With each day that passes minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.

“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.

“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive

In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.

Apollo Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”

So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling various components of the project across a variety of locations.

“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”

Upcoming Challenges

The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta