Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has entailed a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
