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Approximately one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.

“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Challenge

The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.

“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity 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 increasingly concentrated on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.

“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.

“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”

Racing Talent and Team Building Drive

In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in performing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.

“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to more than 400 and planned to hit the objective of six hundred quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.

Space Mission Model

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the program across a variety of locations.

“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader talks to a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta