🔗 Share this article

Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the last event of the championship to be held in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.

The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when considering the journey.

“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Task

Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into F1.

“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to transform team culture.”

With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.

“It's reasonable to expect 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 accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.

“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”

Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort

In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.

“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 rapidly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.

Apollo Model

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.

“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”

Upcoming Challenges

The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta