Just over a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the official approval as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the US, 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 conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with employees now at over 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
