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A little more than a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has required a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the America, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be adequate time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.

“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”

A Unique Challenge

Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the task of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Building an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to change cultural approach.”

With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being managed.

“You have to assume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.

“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the track. Once we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”

Pilot Selection and Recruitment Push

In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.

“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe with this structure, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and intended to attain the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to produce the 2029 engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.

Apollo Model

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”

So they have adopted, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.

“In a system where you follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The success of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta