A little more than a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.
“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, GM, into F1.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort
In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of six hundred quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, different from the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a variety of locations.
“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
