Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as F1's latest entry for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes focus are more focused on the looming decisive point in Australia and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta
