Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Race Against Time to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut 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 monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when thinking about the ride.
“You can have five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Challenge
The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”
With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.
“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort
In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”
To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, contrary to the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.
NASA Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program at a multiple sites.
“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
