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Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from the ground up has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.

The Tight Timeline to Melbourne

At the final race of the season to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.

“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”

An Unprecedented Task

Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors, into F1.

“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”

With every day that elapses focus are sharper on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.

“You have to assume that any incoming team entering the sport is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive

In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.

“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”

To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of building an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.

Apollo Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”

So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the program in a different facilities.

“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager consults a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta