Cadillac Employs Apollo Program Playbook to Construct Squad from Nothing for Australian Grand Prix.

A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the green light as the world of Formula One's latest participant for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware the clock is ticking.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the last event of the season to be hosted in the America, with around a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the first race of 2026, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will never be enough hours in the day.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core from that point and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the experience.

“You might get a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in less than three years,’” Chester states. “But then the following moment you consider: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Challenge

Chester enjoyed success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team backed by the owner, General Motors, into F1.

“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to transform cultural approach.”

With each day that elapses minds are more focused on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.

“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is likely to start at the back but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So we turn up and we function efficiently. We want to show that this is a professional operation executing the correct procedures on the race track. When we prove that we’re really credible, then we want to show forward movement after that.”

Driver Lineup and Team Building Push

In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair distinguished for their invaluable experience in operating at the leading positions in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and the Finnish driver reflected the sentiment of determined optimism.

“Of course, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. In my view with this setup, with this group, these personnel, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with personnel now at over 400 and scheduled to attain the objective of 600 members swiftly. Alongside their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the process of building an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the plant to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in the sport for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO alluded.

NASA Inspiration

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we know how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a flat management structure similar to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of project teams all working on different aspects of the mission at a multiple sites.

“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader consults a manager in another department, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Avoiding hierarchical consent for everything is much smoother and quicker.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this nimble approach will be tested in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta