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Just over one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last given the green light as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Building the organization from scratch has required a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the last event of the season to be staged in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.

“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”

A Unique Opportunity

The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.

“Creating an grand prix team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change team culture.”

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

“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the team had a statement to make as well.

“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the race track. After we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort

In the summer they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “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 finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this group, this staff, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the process of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organization, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.

Apollo Inspiration

“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”

So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project across a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”

Upcoming Challenges

The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young American Colton Herta