Approximately one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO shared this view 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 emphasizes. “So we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling various components of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor talks to a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
