Just over one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the ride.
“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building 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 don’t get the possibility to transform team culture.”
With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of building an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
