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A little more than a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately granted the official approval as F1's newest entry for 2026. Establishing the team from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the last event of the championship to be staged in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.

“You might get a brief moment looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has been quite like the mission of launching the all-American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry backed by the parent company, GM, into F1.

“Establishing an F1 team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you rarely get the chance to alter organizational mindset.”

With each passing day that passes minds are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and goals are being set realistically.

“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he felt the team had a point to prove as well.

“The first thing we want to show is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate improvement from there on.”

Racing Talent and Recruitment Push

In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their drivers for the 2026 season, a tandem notable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas echoed the mood of fighting spirit.

“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To realize that ambition recruitment has been in overdrive, with employees now up to over 400 and planned to attain the goal of 600 rapidly. Alongside their existing facility at the UK base, the team are in the midst of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the new engine, set for 2029 – until then they will operate with power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.

Space Mission Model

“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. Well, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it can seem that way.”

So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on different aspects of the mission at a different facilities.

“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their team leader, that manager talks to a leader somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes Chester. “We give authority to people to take charge. Avoiding hierarchical consent for all decisions is far more efficient and faster.”

The Future

The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta