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Approximately one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.

The Tight Timeline to Melbourne

At the final race of the campaign to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a wry smile when considering the ride.

“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

A Unique Challenge

Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.

“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change team culture.”

With every day that elapses minds are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.

“You have to assume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.

“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. After we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort

In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.

“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these people, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”

To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to hit the goal of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.

NASA Model

“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the project across a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”

The Future

The success of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta