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Just over a full year ago at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the go-ahead as Formula One’s newest participant for 2026. Establishing the squad from scratch has involved a intense operating tempo that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team are aware the clock is ticking.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the final race of the championship to be staged in the America, with around 100 days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, came aboard the nascent project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.

“You can have a brief moment reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we’ve done in under three years,’” he notes. “Then the following moment you consider: ‘Well, we’ve still got a significant amount to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Task

Chester achieved victories at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005/2006 and was in command of technical development at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has truly matched the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Building an F1 team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”

With every day that elapses focus are sharper on the impending decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being handled.

“You have to assume that a brand-new squad entering the sport is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the organization had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the circuit. After we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”

Pilot Selection and Team Building Push

In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the mood of combative optimism.

“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now reaching over 400 and scheduled to hit the objective of six hundred quickly. Alongside their current base at Silverstone, the organization are in the process of finishing an main base at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are building the facility to manufacture the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex structure, at odds with the direction in F1 for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO referred.

Space Mission Inspiration

“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how challenging 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 embraced, rather than the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of specialist groups all tackling various components of the program across a variety of locations.

“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a manager in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Moving away from managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”

What Lies Ahead

The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the intensity of Grand Prix next season and there is a significant degree at stake for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging Californian Colton Herta