A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the green light as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the race track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the project at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
