Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the experience.
“You might get five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Task
Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that goes by focus are more focused on the approaching decisive point in Australia and expectations are being managed.
“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Push
In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the target of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Model
“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta
