Approximately one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the chance to alter team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on various components of the program in a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The success of this nimble methodology will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
