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Just over one year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the go-ahead as F1's latest entrant for 2026. Constructing the squad from nothing has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the final race of the season to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in the spring of 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core from that point and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.

“You might get five minutes looking back at what you’ve done and say: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the following moment you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”

An Unprecedented Challenge

The CTO achieved victories at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning years of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac brand, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”

With every day that goes by thoughts are sharper on the looming decisive point 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 just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon stated earlier this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he thought the squad had a statement to make as well.

“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we operate well. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team executing the correct procedures on the circuit. After we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”

Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive

In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.

“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we’re not there to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in top gear, with personnel now reaching over 400 and intended to hit the objective of six hundred rapidly. Alongside their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the midst of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, planned for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.

Apollo Inspiration

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British GP in the summer. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have adopted, instead of the conventional chain of command, a decentralized management akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the mission at a variety of locations.

“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is much smoother and quicker.”

The Future

The efficacy of this agile approach will be tested in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta