The Cadillac F1 team Utilizes Apollo Program Playbook to Build Team from Scratch for Melbourne Grand Prix.

Approximately a full year previously at the Nevada Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the go-ahead as F1's newest entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from the ground up has involved a intense pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this race weekend, Cadillac understand time is getting tight.

The Countdown to Australia

At the last event of the championship to be held in the United States, with around three months to go before they make their debut for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be sufficient time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic team in March 2023 not long after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its heart from that point and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the ride.

“You can have a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you think: ‘Yes, we still have a great deal to do.’”

An Unprecedented Task

Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical development at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the task of introducing the all-American Cadillac marque, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an well-set team you won't have the opportunity to alter organizational mindset.”

With each passing day that goes by minds are sharper on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being handled.

“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is going to be last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented recently and while Nick Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a reputation to build as well.

“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “In order that we arrive and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the proper actions on the race track. Once we prove that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate progression after that.”

Driver Lineup and Recruitment Push

In August they signed Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a tandem remarkable for their invaluable experience in competing at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the mood of determined optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he said. “We have a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to finish last. I believe given this organization, with this group, these people, there is every reason that we can't manage to progress rapidly up to the pace and taste victory.”

To realize that ambition staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with employees now at more than 400 and planned to attain the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at the UK base, the team are in the midst of finishing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the GM works in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to manufacture the 2029 engine, planned for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the aerodynamic facility in Cologne. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for more centralization, and has inspired the innovative team culture to which the CTO referred.

NASA Blueprint

“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We are pragmatic, we understand how difficult it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have embraced, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all focusing on various components of the program in a variety of locations.

“In a system where you follow a process where an issue arises and they escalate it to their manager, that leader communicates with a leader at a different location, it travels back down, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “So we empower team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is much smoother and quicker.”

What Lies Ahead

The success of this nimble approach will be proven in the heat of competition next season and there is a considerable amount on the line for F1, too. Cadillac have signed as their development driver the 25-year-old Californian Colton Herta