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A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as the world of Formula One's latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 arrives on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the first 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 never be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in early 2023 shortly after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center from that point and enjoys a amused expression when considering the journey.

“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”

With every day that elapses minds are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.

“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a statement to make as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”

Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort

In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the mood of combative optimism.

“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and achieve good results.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.

Space Mission Blueprint

“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the project at a multiple sites.

“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Avoiding management approval for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta