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Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has involved a intense work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.

The Countdown to Australia

At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.

“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”

A Unique Challenge

The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.

“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”

With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.

“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a statement to make as well.

“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort

In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.

“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”

To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.

Space Mission Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the program at a multiple sites.

“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”

Upcoming Challenges

The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta