A little more than one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from the ground up has required a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Race Against Time to Australia
At the last event of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.
“You can have five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”
With each passing day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”
Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to build the new engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred to.
NASA Blueprint
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling various components of the mission at a different facilities.
“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta
