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A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally granted the official approval as Formula One’s latest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport descends on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the clock is ticking.

The Race Against Time to Australia

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 first time in Australia at the 2026 season opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the nascent project in March 2023 not long after it was created, when the squad were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.

“You might get five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and go: ‘Amazing, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in less than three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Opportunity

Nick Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in Fernando Alonso’s victorious seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of technical development at the new Mercedes Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry backed by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Building an Formula One team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to transform cultural approach.”

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

“It's reasonable to expect that any new team entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a point to prove as well.

“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we belong on the grid,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. Once we’ve shown that we are a legitimate team, then we will focus on improvement from there on.”

Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive

In late summer they recruited Sergio Perez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of determined optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it will likely be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this structure, with these individuals, these people, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with staff now up to in excess of 400 and intended to reach the objective of 600 quickly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the squad are in the midst of building an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the center to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – for now they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated structure, different from the movement in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the innovative team culture to which Nick Chester alluded.

Apollo Inspiration

“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British GP in July. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how challenging it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, 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 assortment of specialist groups all tackling distinct elements of the program at a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader consults a manager in another department, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to handle things directly. Avoiding management approval for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”

The Future

The efficacy of this agile approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their test driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta