A little more than a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the go-ahead as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the race track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to reach the goal of six hundred quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
