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Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has entailed a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.

The Tight Timeline to Melbourne

At the final race of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in early 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when considering the experience.

“You might get a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”

A Unique Challenge

The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.

“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to alter team culture.”

With each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and targets are being managed.

“One must presume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the right things on the track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”

Racing Talent and Recruitment Push

In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a mountain 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 remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and achieve good results.”

To achieve that goal recruitment has been in full swing, with staff now at in excess of 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.

NASA Blueprint

“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”

So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the project across a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Moving away from hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”

The Future

The success of this flexible methodology will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta