A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With every day that passes focus are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought 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. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now at over 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader talks to a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta