A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.
“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”
With every day that passes minds are more focused on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.
NASA Blueprint
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be tested in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
