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A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.

The Countdown to Australia

At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.

“There might be a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Challenge

Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to change cultural approach.”

With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.

“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”

Racing Talent and Team Building Push

In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”

To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.

NASA Model

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The efficacy of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta