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A little more than twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from scratch has required a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the last event of the championship to be staged in the America, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be adequate time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.

“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Challenge

Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to alter organizational mindset.”

With each day that goes by minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.

“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the team had a point to prove as well.

“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”

Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive

In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of fighting spirit.

“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.

Apollo Inspiration

“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”

What Lies Ahead

The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta