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Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has required a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.

The Countdown to Australia

At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.

The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.

“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”

A Unique Task

Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to alter team culture.”

With every day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.

“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a point to prove as well.

“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression after that.”

Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort

In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.

“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of completing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.

Apollo Blueprint

“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on various components of the project across a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”

What Lies Ahead

The efficacy of this agile strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a considerable amount riding on this for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta