A little more than twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.
“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform team culture.”
With each day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals 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 feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Drive
In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, different from the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all working on various components of the program in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
