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Approximately one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Establishing the team from scratch has entailed a hectic pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport arrives on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the last event of the campaign to be staged in the US, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut 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 monumental task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in early 2023 not long after it was formed, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a amused expression when thinking about the journey.

“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still a significant amount to do.’”

An Unprecedented Task

Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the mission of bringing the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.

“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the opportunity to change cultural approach.”

With each passing day that elapses minds are more focused on the approaching critical moment in Australia and expectations are being managed.

“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.

“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We want to show that we are a serious contender executing the right things on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression from there on.”

Racing Talent and Hiring Effort

In late summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of determined optimism.

“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with these individuals, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.

NASA Inspiration

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” stated Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”

So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the project in a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”

What Lies Ahead

The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested 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 young American Colton Herta