A little more than twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Effort
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling various components of the project at a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
