Just over a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to change team culture.”
With each passing day that passes thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to hit the target of 600 quickly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the program in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The efficacy of this agile strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
