A little more than twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
