Approximately a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the journey.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
