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Approximately a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately granted the green light as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the season finale of the championship to be held in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and gets a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.

“You might get five minutes looking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Challenge

The CTO had success at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac marque, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”

With each passing day that passes focus are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.

“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”

Driver Lineup and Hiring Push

In August they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.

“Naturally, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now up to over 400 and intended to reach the objective of six hundred quickly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.

Apollo Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, instead of the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission in a multiple sites.

“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”

Upcoming Challenges

The success of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta