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A little more than a full year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the squad from the ground up has required a hectic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac understand the deadline is approaching.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the final race of the season to be staged in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will never be adequate time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core since then and enjoys a knowing grin when considering the ride.

“You might get a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “But then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”

A Unique Task

Chester had success at the Renault team in Alonso's title-winning seasons of the mid-2000s and was in control of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a works entry backed by the owner, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Creating an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the chance to alter team culture.”

With each passing day that goes by minds are more focused on the looming critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being handled.

“It's reasonable to expect that any incoming team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon commented this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the team had a reputation to build as well.

“The initial objective we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the proper actions on the race track. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate forward movement from there on.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive

In late summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their pilots for 2026, a tandem distinguished for their invaluable experience in competing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver expressed the mood of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. In my view with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now at more than 400 and planned to reach the goal of 600 swiftly. Alongside their existing facility at Silverstone, the organization are in the phase of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will run power from Ferrari – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organization, contrary to the trend in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester referred.

Space Mission Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging it is. The schedules, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, as opposed to the usual hierarchical system, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling various components of the program at a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a procedure where an issue arises and they report it to their supervisor, that manager consults a supervisor somewhere else, it is relayed back, it’s super slow,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for each action is far more efficient and more rapid.”

Upcoming Challenges

The effectiveness of this flexible methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a considerable amount at stake for the sport, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta