Just over twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, 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 achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 quickly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this agile approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
