A little more than twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With every day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
