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A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.

The Countdown to Australia

At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a wry smile when considering the journey.

“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Challenge

The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to change team culture.”

With each passing day that elapses thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.

“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 achievement in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”

Racing Talent and Hiring Drive

In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.

“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”

To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the direction in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.

NASA Blueprint

“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”

So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.

“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a leader at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to team members to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta