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Just over one year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the official approval as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has involved a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.

The Tight Timeline to Melbourne

At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the America, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will never be enough hours in the day.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.

“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Task

Chester had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.

“Building an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to alter team culture.”

With every day that passes focus are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being managed.

“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO shared this view he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.

“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Push

In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the attitude of fighting spirit.

“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”

To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to build the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred to.

NASA Inspiration

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”

So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project at a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta