Just over one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing 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 cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.
“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.
“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and intended to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, different from the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.
Apollo Inspiration
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
