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Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.

“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”

An Unprecedented Task

Nick Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter team culture.”

With each passing day that passes focus are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.

“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”

Racing Talent and Recruitment Effort

In the summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.

Space Mission Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the mission at a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”

The Future

The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta