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A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as F1's newest entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a hectic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the last event of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and has a amused expression when considering the journey.

“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “Then the following moment you think: ‘Well, there is still quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Opportunity

Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.

“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”

With each passing day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and targets are being managed.

“One must presume that any incoming team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.

“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the correct procedures on the track. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement after that.”

Racing Talent and Recruitment Drive

In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now up to over 400 and planned to hit the goal of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, set for the 2029 season – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a intricate structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.

Space Mission Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have embraced, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the mission across a different facilities.

“In a system where you follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta