Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent participant for 2026. Establishing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Australia
At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with just over a hundred 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 sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Opportunity
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”
With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Push
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta
