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Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the final race of the season to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and has a wry smile when thinking about the experience.

“You can have a short period looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Task

The CTO enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter cultural approach.”

With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.

“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the squad had a reputation to build as well.

“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the track. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”

Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive

In August they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.

“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”

To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to attain the target of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the trend in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.

Apollo Inspiration

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how challenging it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”

So they have implemented, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on various components of the program in a multiple sites.

“When you must follow a process where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that supervisor communicates with a leader somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and quicker.”

The Future

The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta