Approximately a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
