Just over one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the final race of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You might get a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of building an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, 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 assortment of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The success of this flexible strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta
