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A little more than one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from the ground up has required a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.

The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.

“There might be five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”

A Unique Opportunity

The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Creating an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”

With each passing day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being managed.

“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester shared this view he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.

“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”

Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive

In the summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.

“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”

To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 members quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.

Apollo Inspiration

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the project across a different facilities.

“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this agile approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta