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A little more than twelve months previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last granted the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has involved a frenetic operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.

The Countdown to Australia

At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in the spring of 2023 soon after it was established, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when considering the journey.

“You might get five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you think: ‘Yeah, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Establishing an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the chance to change cultural approach.”

With every day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Australia and expectations are being managed.

“One must presume that a brand-new squad coming in is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal commented this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.

“The initial objective we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show forward movement subsequently.”

Racing Talent and Hiring Push

In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas expressed the attitude of combative optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I believe with this setup, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”

To that end recruitment has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at the UK base, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the plant to build the new engine, set for 2029 – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.

NASA Model

“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”

So they have adopted, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling various components of the project in a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they raise it up to their team leader, that supervisor communicates with a manager at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “We give authority to team members to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is so much cleaner and faster.”

What Lies Ahead

The success of this agile approach will be evaluated in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta