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Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as F1's most recent participant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has entailed a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the season finale 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 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.

The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.

“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”

An Unprecedented Challenge

Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.

“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”

With every day that passes minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being handled.

“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid 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 want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”

Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive

In late summer they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To realize that ambition hiring has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.

Apollo Inspiration

“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”

So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.

“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”

The Future

The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta