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Just over twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's latest participant for 2026. Building the squad from nothing has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the America, with approximately three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.

The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a wry smile when thinking about the experience.

“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we still have a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Challenge

The CTO had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the all-American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.

“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to change cultural approach.”

With each passing day that goes by focus are sharper on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.

“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.

“Our primary goal we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement after that.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive

In late summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this structure, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred to.

NASA Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the program in a variety of locations.

“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”

The Future

The efficacy of this flexible strategy will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta