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Approximately a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has entailed a intense pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, the team know time is getting tight.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the US, with around three months to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed operation in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a wry smile when thinking about the ride.

“You might get five minutes thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”

A Unique Task

Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's championship-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has been quite like the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the parent company, GM, into Formula One.

“Building an grand prix team from nothing, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”

With each day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.

“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the team had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the right things on the race track. Once we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Effort

In August they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of fighting spirit.

“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”

To realize that ambition recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred swiftly. In addition to their existing facility at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Chester referred.

Apollo Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” stated the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. OK, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all tackling distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor talks to a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” explains Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”

Upcoming Challenges

The effectiveness of this nimble strategy will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their test driver the emerging American Colton Herta