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Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has required a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the final race of the championship to be held in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the experience.

“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”

A Unique Task

The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.

“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to change team culture.”

With every day that passes thoughts are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.

“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming 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 commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.

“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression from there on.”

Driver Lineup and Hiring Push

In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of determined optimism.

“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To that end recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now up to more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of six hundred quickly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.

Space Mission Inspiration

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have adopted, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all working on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.

“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”

The Future

The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta