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Approximately one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has involved a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.

The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the ride.

“There might be five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Challenge

The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.

“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change team culture.”

With every day that elapses focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.

“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.

“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive

In August they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.

“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to hit the goal of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, planned for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.

NASA Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the program in a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and faster.”

Upcoming Challenges

The effectiveness of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta