Approximately a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the championship to be staged in the United States, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to transform team culture.”
With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members quickly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader talks to a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
