Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from nothing has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that passes minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the circuit. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort
In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 rapidly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
NASA Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
