Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be held in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the target of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
