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Just over twelve months ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as F1's latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from scratch has involved a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.

The Countdown to Australia

At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing 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 CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.

“You can have five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”

A Unique Challenge

Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.

“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”

With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.

“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.

“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”

Racing Talent and Recruitment Push

In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.

“Certainly, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now up to more than 400 and planned to attain the objective of six hundred quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.

Apollo Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the mission across a variety of locations.

“In a system where you follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager talks to a leader in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and faster.”

What Lies Ahead

The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta