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Just over twelve months previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest entry for the 2026 season. Establishing the team from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.

The Countdown to Australia

At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center since then and has a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.

“You can have five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Challenge

Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to change cultural approach.”

With every day that elapses minds are increasingly concentrated on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.

“You have to assume that a brand-new squad coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while the CTO echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.

“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the correct procedures on the track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement subsequently.”

Driver Lineup and Team Building Effort

In the summer they signed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of combative optimism.

“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”

To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to attain the goal of 600 swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the process of completing an headquarters at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the 2029 engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the trend in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.

Space Mission Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”

So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the program in a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that leader communicates with a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to staff to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”

What Lies Ahead

The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their reserve driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta