Cadillac Utilizes NASA Approach to Assemble Team from the Ground Up for Australian Race Debut.

Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has required a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be adequate time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.

“There might be five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”

A Unique Opportunity

Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 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 marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to transform team culture.”

With each day that goes by focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.

“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while the CTO shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”

Racing Talent and Team Building Drive

In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”

To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.

Apollo Inspiration

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the project across a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that leader talks to a manager in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “So we empower team members to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”

Upcoming Challenges

The success of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta