Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Space Mission Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the program at a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix 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 emerging American Colton Herta
