Just over twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“You might get a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the race track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
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 variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
