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Just over one year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the team from scratch has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the season finale of the campaign to be held in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.

The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when thinking about the journey.

“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he says. “But then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Task

The CTO achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”

With each day that passes thoughts are more focused on the impending critical moment in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.

“One must presume that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO echoed this he believed the team had a statement to make as well.

“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on progression from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive

In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.

“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a huge amount of work to do, and we expect probably a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”

To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at over 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are building the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the direction in F1 for more centralization, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.

Apollo Inspiration

“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have adopted, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission across a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a process where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that leader consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”

The Future

The effectiveness of this flexible strategy will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta