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Just over one year in the past at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as F1's latest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from nothing has involved a intense pace of work that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on Las Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.

The Tight Timeline to Australia

At the last event of the season to be hosted in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a never-ending endeavor, they are aware there will not be adequate time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart since then and enjoys a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.

“You might get a short period thinking back at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Task

Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the task of launching the iconic American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Creating an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “It's unparalleled. In an established team you don’t get the possibility to change team culture.”

With each passing day that passes focus are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and targets are being handled.

“It's reasonable to expect that a brand-new squad joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.

“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on progression subsequently.”

Racing Talent and Recruitment Push

In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem notable for their priceless expertise in operating at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the mood of determined optimism.

“Of course, we’re realistic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I am confident given this organization, with these individuals, this staff, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to advance swiftly up to the pace and achieve good results.”

To realize that ambition hiring has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, where they are constructing the plant to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester referred to.

Apollo Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how tough it is. The timelines, 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 traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the mission in a different facilities.

“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it’s super slow,” notes Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to handle things directly. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”

Upcoming Challenges

The efficacy of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have signed as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta