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A little more than twelve months ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as F1's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the organization from the ground up has required a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.

“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Opportunity

Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into F1.

“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”

With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.

“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression subsequently.”

Racing Talent and Team Building Effort

In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.

“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with staff now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred to.

NASA Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” said Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have implemented, instead of the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the program in a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader consults a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and quicker.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta