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Just over twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as Formula One’s most recent entrant for 2026. Building the squad from scratch has involved a frenetic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.

The Countdown to Australia

At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with just over three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne 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 cognizant there will not be adequate time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and has a knowing grin when thinking about the ride.

“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”

A Unique Task

Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Creating an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”

With each day that goes by thoughts are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and goals are being handled.

“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while the CTO shared this view he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.

“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement after that.”

Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive

In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their vast knowledge in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the attitude of fighting spirit.

“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching more than 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of completing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.

NASA Model

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the British GP in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how challenging 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, instead of the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission at a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that manager talks to a manager in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be proven in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta