Approximately a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the official approval as F1's newest entry for 2026. Constructing the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization 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 perform competently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on various components of the mission in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta
