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Just over twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as F1's newest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has entailed a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a wry smile when considering the journey.

“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”

An Unprecedented Challenge

The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.

“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”

With each day that passes minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being handled.

“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.

“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive

In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.

“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have 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 these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.

Space Mission Inspiration

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the project in a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta