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A little more than a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.

The Countdown to Australia

At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.

“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Challenge

The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.

“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the opportunity to transform team culture.”

With every day that elapses thoughts are sharper on the impending critical moment in Australia and targets are being managed.

“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.

“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation doing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort

In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.

“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”

To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of six hundred quickly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of building an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organization, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.

Apollo Model

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal just before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program across a different facilities.

“When you must follow a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”

The Future

The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta