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Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally awarded the green light as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from scratch has involved a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.

The Tight Timeline to Melbourne

At the season finale of the season to be staged in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.

The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent operation in March 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center ever since and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the ride.

“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

Chester had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of introducing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, GM, into F1.

“Creating an F1 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 chance to transform organizational mindset.”

With each passing day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching critical moment in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.

“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.

“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team doing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”

Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort

In August they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of determined optimism.

“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. In my view with this setup, with this team, these people, there’s no reason why we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to in excess of 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 rapidly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.

Apollo Model

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have embraced, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the mission across a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a leader at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Moving away from managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The success of this nimble strategy will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta