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Approximately a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the America, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit 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 aware there will never be adequate time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent project in March 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart since then and gets a knowing grin when considering the ride.

“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to transform team culture.”

With each passing day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.

“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.

“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on improvement after that.”

Racing Talent and Hiring Effort

In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of determined optimism.

“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”

To that end hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.

Apollo Model

“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult 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 usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on distinct elements of the project across a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this nimble strategy will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta