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Approximately a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately awarded the official approval as the world of Formula One's most recent participant for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has required a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac know time is getting tight.

The Countdown to Australia

At the last event of the season to be held in the America, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.

The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.

“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got quite a lot to do.’”

A Unique Opportunity

The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Establishing an Formula One team from the ground up, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”

With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being handled.

“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated recently and while Chester echoed this he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation performing the proper actions on the race track. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we want to show progression from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive

In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this structure, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of six hundred swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to build the power unit, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.

Apollo Model

“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all working on various components of the mission across a variety of locations.

“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they report it to their team leader, that leader consults a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “So we empower staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and quicker.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta