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Just over a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from scratch has required a hectic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with just over three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent operation in March 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core since then and has a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.

“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Wow, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the very next instant you realize: ‘Yes, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Challenge

The CTO enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Building an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to alter cultural approach.”

With every day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.

“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a point to prove as well.

“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we turn up and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the race track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement after that.”

Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push

In late summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the attitude of fighting spirit.

“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” he commented. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because it is F1. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident given this organization, with this group, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the squad are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which Nick Chester referred.

Apollo Model

“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon ahead of the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, 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 flat management structure comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling distinct elements of the project in a different facilities.

“In a system where you follow a process where someone has a problem and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a supervisor somewhere else, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable staff to really get on with it. Moving away from management approval for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta