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A little more than twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the green light as F1's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Establishing the squad from nothing has entailed a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.

The Tight Timeline to Melbourne

At the season finale of the season to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic project in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.

“You might get five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.

“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to transform cultural approach.”

With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Australia and targets are being managed.

“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression after that.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Push

In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.

Apollo Blueprint

“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.

“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta