A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and gets a wry smile when thinking about the journey.
“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into F1.
“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”
With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently 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. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort
In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and planned to attain the target of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
