A little more than twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect 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,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably 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 setup, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Avoiding management approval for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
