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Approximately a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the season finale of the season to be staged in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.

“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”

A Unique Task

Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to alter team culture.”

With every day that goes by thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.

“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.

“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”

Driver Lineup and Team Building Push

In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”

To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now up to more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, at odds with the direction in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.

NASA Blueprint

“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all focusing on different aspects of the project in a different facilities.

“In a system where you follow a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager consults a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and more rapid.”

The Future

The success of this flexible methodology will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta