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Approximately twelve months in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s latest entry for 2026. Establishing the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac know the clock is ticking.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the United States, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the nascent team in the spring of 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a knowing grin when thinking about the journey.

“You can have five minutes reflecting at what you’ve done and say: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we have built in less than three years,’” he says. “Then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a significant amount to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

Chester enjoyed success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning campaigns of 2005 and 2006 and was in command of technical direction at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has truly matched the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Establishing 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 don’t get the opportunity to change organizational mindset.”

With each day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in Melbourne and goals are being handled.

“One must presume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a reputation to build as well.

“The first thing we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender doing the right things on the circuit. When we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement subsequently.”

Driver Lineup and Team Building Push

In August they signed Checo Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.

“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view given this organization, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we won't be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now up to more than 400 and intended to reach the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – for now they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne, Germany. It is a intricate organisation, different from the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester referred to.

Space Mission Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how difficult it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of specialist groups all working on distinct elements of the mission at a multiple sites.

“When you must follow a protocol where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their supervisor, that manager consults a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” says Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable people to really get on with it. Eliminating hierarchical consent for each action is much smoother and faster.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a considerable amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have taken on as their test driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta