Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Melbourne
At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Task
The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”
With each day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the race track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort
In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”
To that end hiring has been in top gear, with employees now up to over 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.
Apollo Model
“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project in a variety of locations.
“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a leader somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
What Lies Ahead
The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta
