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Approximately a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the last event of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and gets a amused expression when thinking about the journey.

“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”

A Unique Challenge

Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.

“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to transform team culture.”

With every day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.

“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.

“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the race track. Once we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”

Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort

In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.

“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.

Apollo Inspiration

“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”

So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on various components of the program at a multiple sites.

“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta