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Approximately one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the team from the ground up has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team know the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the final race of the championship to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when considering the ride.

“There might be a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Task

The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has quite compared with the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”

With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being handled.

“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the track. After we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show progression after that.”

Racing Talent and Hiring Effort

In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.

“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”

To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with staff now reaching over 400 and planned to attain the goal of six hundred quickly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester alluded.

Space Mission Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission at a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and faster.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta