Approximately a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a wry smile when considering the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Building 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 opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to 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 focusing on distinct elements of the project in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
