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Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's newest entry for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has required a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the last event of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.

The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.

“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Task

Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change team culture.”

With each day that passes focus are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being handled.

“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the organization 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 arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”

Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort

In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.

“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in top gear, with employees now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.

Apollo Blueprint

“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”

So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project in a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The success of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta