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A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has required a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.

The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.

“You can have a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Opportunity

The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Creating an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”

With each passing day that passes focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being handled.

“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a statement to make as well.

“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”

Driver Lineup and Hiring Push

In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.

“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”

To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.

NASA Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project across a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and faster.”

What Lies Ahead

The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta