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Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has involved a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the America, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will not be adequate time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.

“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Task

Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the owner, GM, into Formula One.

“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”

With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.

“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.

“The first thing we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”

Racing Talent and Hiring Push

In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.

“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”

To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to build the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the direction in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.

NASA Model

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”

So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program in a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta