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Just over a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit 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 task, they are aware there will never be sufficient time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the journey.

“You might get a short period thinking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the corporate entity, GM, into Formula One.

“Creating an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you don’t get the opportunity to transform organizational mindset.”

With each day that goes by focus are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.

“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the squad had a point to prove as well.

“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he says. “So we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the circuit. When we prove that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”

Racing Talent and Team Building Drive

In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.

“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly to the front and taste victory.”

To that end hiring has been in top gear, with staff now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the target of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the process of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to build the power unit, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.

Apollo Model

“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal ahead of the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the project at a multiple sites.

“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young American Colton Herta