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Approximately a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress 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 operation in early 2023 not long after it was created, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a amused expression when thinking about the ride.

“You might get a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”

A Unique Task

Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a factory team supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.

“Building an Formula One team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”

With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being set realistically.

“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.

“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”

Racing Talent and Team Building Push

In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the attitude of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we’re not there to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and enjoy some success.”

To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the target of six hundred quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organization, contrary to the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.

Space Mission Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” said the team principal ahead of the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on different aspects of the project at a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Eliminating management approval for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this flexible approach will be evaluated in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta