Approximately a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when considering the ride.
“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With each day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the team had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Drive
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.
NASA Model
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
