Just over twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has involved a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor talks to a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
