Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Building the organization from nothing has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You might get a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.
“One must presume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the objective of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
