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Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as F1's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from nothing has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.

The Countdown to Australia

At the final race of the season to be hosted in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed team in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.

“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”

An Unprecedented Challenge

Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to transform cultural approach.”

With every day that passes focus are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.

“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.

“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the race track. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”

Driver Lineup and Recruitment Effort

In August they signed Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and achieve good results.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 quickly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.

NASA Model

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough 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 implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.

“When you must follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and faster.”

Upcoming Challenges

The success of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta