Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the championship to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a amused expression when considering the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the team had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
