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Just over a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last awarded the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's most recent entrant for 2026. Constructing the team from the ground up has entailed a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As Formula One descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the United States, with around three months to go before they take to the track for the first time in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart from that point and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.

“There might be a short period reflecting at what you’ve done and go: ‘Amazing, how impressive what the team has created in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, we’ve still got a great deal to do.’”

A Unique Task

The CTO achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning years of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has quite compared with the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into Formula One.

“Building an F1 team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you don’t get the chance to transform cultural approach.”

With each day that goes by minds are sharper on the approaching moment of truth in Australia and targets are being handled.

“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 feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “In order that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the race track. Once we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Push

In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their racers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with staff now reaching more than 400 and planned to reach the objective of 600 members quickly. Complementing their present headquarters at Silverstone, the organization are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are constructing the facility to produce the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which Chester referred.

NASA Model

“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. OK, 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 comparable to that of the space agency's, where there were a variety of project teams all focusing on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.

“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that manager consults a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Avoiding management approval for everything is much smoother and faster.”

What Lies Ahead

The efficacy of this agile methodology will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta