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Approximately twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the official approval as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with around 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.

The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the journey.

“You might get a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

Nick Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you won't have the possibility to transform cultural approach.”

With each day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.

“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.

“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement subsequently.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Effort

In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of fighting spirit.

“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”

To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the center to manufacture the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, at odds with the trend in Formula One for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred.

Space Mission Inspiration

“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have implemented, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on various components of the program in a variety of locations.

“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for each action is far more efficient and faster.”

The Future

The efficacy of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta