A little more than one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.
The Tight Timeline to Australia
At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.
“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we still have a significant amount to do.’”
An Unprecedented Challenge
Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”
With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”
Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push
In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To that end staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.
NASA Model
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on various components of the program across a different facilities.
“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and quicker.”
Upcoming Challenges
The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta
