Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has involved a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and goals are being managed.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project across a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
