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A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has required a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.

The Tight Timeline to Melbourne

At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the ride.

“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Task

The CTO had success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac marque, 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 is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”

With each passing day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in Australia and expectations are being managed.

“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.

“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the race track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”

Driver Lineup and Hiring Drive

In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.

“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”

To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the new engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.

NASA Blueprint

“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”

So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all focusing on various components of the project in a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that manager talks to a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta