Cadillac Utilizes Apollo Program Approach to Construct Squad from the Ground Up for Melbourne Startline.

Approximately one year in the past at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for the 2026 season. Constructing the team from scratch has required a frenetic pace of work that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport arrives on Las Vegas this weekend, the team are aware the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Melbourne

At the final race of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately 100 days to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 season opener, the Cadillac F1 project have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are aware there will not be sufficient time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the embryonic project in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its heart ever since and has a wry smile when considering the journey.

“There might be a brief moment thinking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you think: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity

Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious years of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but no other project has been quite like the challenge of introducing the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Establishing an Formula One team from scratch, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an existing team you won't have the possibility to transform team culture.”

With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in Australia and targets are being set realistically.

“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is going to be last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted this year and while Nick Chester shared this view he believed the organization had a statement to make as well.

“Our primary goal we want to show is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender executing the proper actions on the track. After we’ve shown that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on improvement after that.”

Driver Lineup and Hiring Push

In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their racers for 2026, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the front in two championship-winning squads, Red Bull and the Mercedes team, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of combative optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it’s going to be probably a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident given this organization, with this group, these people, it's entirely possible we won't be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and intended to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the team are in the phase of finishing an HQ at Fishers, Indiana in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to build the power unit, scheduled for 2029 – until then they will operate with Ferrari power units – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated structure, at odds with the movement in the sport for greater centralisation, and has inspired the fresh organizational mindset to which Chester alluded.

NASA Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” said Lowdon just before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we understand how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Well, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”

So they have adopted, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a range of Apollo teams all working on various components of the program across a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” explains Nick Chester. “So we empower people to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for each action is much smoother and more rapid.”

Upcoming Challenges

The effectiveness of this nimble methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta