Cadillac Adopts NASA Playbook to Build Team from the Ground Up for Australian Grand Prix.

A little more than twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the final race of the championship to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.

“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

A Unique Task

The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”

With each passing day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.

“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal stated this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Push

In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.

NASA Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.

“When you must follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”

What Lies Ahead

The success of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta