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A little more than a full year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were finally given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the final race of the season to be held in the US, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will not be adequate time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was formed, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core from that point and gets a amused expression when thinking about the ride.

“There might be a brief moment reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in less than three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, there is still quite a lot to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

Nick Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has quite compared with the challenge of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into F1.

“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to alter cultural approach.”

With every day that elapses minds are sharper on the looming decisive point in Australia and goals are being set realistically.

“You have to assume that any new team coming in is likely to start at the back but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender doing the proper actions on the circuit. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we aim to demonstrate improvement subsequently.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Drive

In the summer they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of combative optimism.

“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I believe given this organization, with these individuals, these people, there’s no reason why we can't manage to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 swiftly. Alongside their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of completing an HQ at the Fishers location in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the plant to manufacture the power unit, set for the 2029 season – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, contrary to the trend in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.

Apollo Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how challenging it is. The deadlines, they’re super, super, super short. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”

So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure akin to that of NASA's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all working on distinct elements of the project at a multiple sites.

“If you have to go through a protocol where someone has a problem and they raise it up to their supervisor, that leader consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “Therefore we enable people to handle things directly. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”

What Lies Ahead

The success of this agile methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have taken on as their development driver the young Californian Colton Herta