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Just over one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the go-ahead as Formula One’s latest participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has required a hectic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the final race of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are aware there will not be enough hours in the day.

The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 not long after it was established, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and enjoys a wry smile when considering the experience.

“You can have five minutes thinking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a great deal to do.’”

An Unprecedented Opportunity

Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a factory team supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into F1.

“Creating an F1 team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to alter organizational mindset.”

With each day that elapses focus are increasingly concentrated on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being set realistically.

“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester shared this view he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the circuit. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we want to show forward movement from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Recruitment Drive

In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of fighting spirit.

“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “We have a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching more than 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the facility to manufacture the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.

Apollo Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo project,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how challenging it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”

So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all tackling different aspects of the program at a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “We give authority to people to really get on with it. Moving away from hierarchical consent for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”

The Future

The efficacy of this nimble approach will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta