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Just over twelve months in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's newest participant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.

“You can have five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, GM, into Formula One.

“Creating an F1 team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”

With each day that passes minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.

“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while the CTO shared this view he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.

“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression after that.”

Racing Talent and Hiring Drive

In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching in excess of 400 and planned to reach the objective of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to produce the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.

Space Mission Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the mission across a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor talks to a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta