Approximately twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by minds are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Push
In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 members quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project in a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta