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Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has involved a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a knowing grin when considering the journey.

“You can have a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.

“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to transform team culture.”

With each passing day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.

“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a statement to make as well.

“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”

Racing Talent and Hiring Drive

In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.

“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”

To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.

NASA Model

“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the program across a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta