A little more than one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and enjoys a wry smile when considering the journey.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to more than 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the power unit, set for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Space Mission Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
