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Approximately one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last given the green light as Formula One’s most recent entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.

The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.

“There might be a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”

A Unique Task

The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.

“Establishing an F1 team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”

With each day that passes minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being managed.

“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.

“The first thing we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive

In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.

“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and taste victory.”

To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now up to over 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the new engine, planned for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate organization, different from the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.

Space Mission Model

“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”

So they have implemented, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the program in a multiple sites.

“If you have to go through a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager talks to a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower people to handle things directly. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and faster.”

The Future

The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the young American Colton Herta