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A little more than one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entry for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when thinking about the experience.

“There might be a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”

A Unique Task

Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to alter cultural approach.”

With each passing day that elapses minds are sharper on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.

“It's reasonable to expect that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.

“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation executing the proper actions on the track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show progression after that.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive

In late summer they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable 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 Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.

“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe with this setup, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now at over 400 and intended to hit the target of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of finishing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred to.

Apollo Inspiration

“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”

So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission at a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”

Upcoming Challenges

The success of this flexible strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta