Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the official approval as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to more than 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
