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Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the clock is ticking.

The Countdown to Australia

At the last event of the season to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be adequate time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.

“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”

An Unprecedented Task

The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Establishing an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”

With each passing day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.

“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.

“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the track. Once we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort

In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.

“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now at more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.

Apollo Model

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the project at a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their manager, that manager communicates with a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”

What Lies Ahead

The success of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta