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Approximately twelve months in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally awarded the go-ahead as F1's latest participant for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the season finale of the championship to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending challenge, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.

“You can have a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and go: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have a significant amount to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Challenge

Chester had success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter team culture.”

With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.

“It's reasonable to expect that any new team coming in is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented recently and while the CTO echoed this he felt the organization had a statement to make as well.

“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we operate well. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team performing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Push

In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their vast knowledge in performing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.

“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I believe with this structure, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and achieve good results.”

To that end staff acquisition has been in full swing, with employees now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the goal of six hundred quickly. In addition to their existing facility at Silverstone, the team are in the midst of building an main base at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are constructing the facility to produce the power unit, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, different from the trend in the sport for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.

Space Mission Model

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal ahead of the Silverstone race in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The timelines, are extremely compressed. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a flat management structure akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their supervisor, that leader consults a leader in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “So we empower people to take charge. Moving away from management approval for each action is so much cleaner and more rapid.”

Upcoming Challenges

The success of this agile strategy will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta