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Just over a full year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a intense work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.

The Tight Timeline to Melbourne

At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.

“There might be a short period looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”

An Unprecedented Task

The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into F1.

“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”

With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.

“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.

“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the race track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Push

In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to produce the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.

Apollo Inspiration

“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all tackling different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.

“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and faster.”

The Future

The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta