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Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.

“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

A Unique Task

Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into F1.

“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”

With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and goals are being set realistically.

“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement from there on.”

Racing Talent and Hiring Effort

In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.

“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this group, these personnel, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now up to more than 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.

Apollo Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal shortly before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”

So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program at a different facilities.

“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager consults a manager in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower staff to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and quicker.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta