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A little more than one year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.

The Tight Timeline to Melbourne

At the last event of the championship to be held in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when considering the experience.

“You can have a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”

A Unique Opportunity

Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a factory team sponsored by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the chance to transform organizational mindset.”

With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the impending decisive point in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.

“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.

“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the race track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression after that.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Push

In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the mood of fighting spirit.

“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and planned to reach the target of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.

Apollo Inspiration

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”

So they have adopted, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program at a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and quicker.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this flexible approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta