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Approximately a full year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the squad from the ground up has involved a hectic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.

The Countdown to Australia

At the last event of the season to be held in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.

The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.

“You can have a short period thinking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Challenge

Nick Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s victorious campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Building an grand prix team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you don’t get the chance to change cultural approach.”

With each passing day that passes thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.

“One must presume that any new team coming in is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the team had a point to prove as well.

“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that this is a professional operation executing the right things on the circuit. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement after that.”

Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort

In August they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the attitude of combative optimism.

“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the target of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred to.

Space Mission Blueprint

“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the program across a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a manager at a different location, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta