Just over twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be held in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to change team culture.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the team are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that manager consults a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
