The Cadillac F1 team Employs Apollo Program Approach to Construct Team from Scratch for Melbourne Race Debut.

A little more than one year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as the world of Formula One's newest entrant for the 2026 season. Building the organization from the ground up has required a intense work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As F1 descends on Las Vegas this race weekend, the team know the clock is ticking.

The Countdown to Australia

At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the United States, with just over a hundred days to go before they take to the track for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are cognizant there will never be sufficient time.

The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic operation in March 2023 shortly after it was formed, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its core ever since and enjoys a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.

“There might be five minutes thinking back at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Incredible, isn’t this fantastic what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “But then the following moment you realize: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”

A One-of-a-Kind Challenge

Chester enjoyed success at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning years of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the mission of introducing the iconic American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Establishing an F1 team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an well-set team you rarely get the opportunity to alter team culture.”

With each day that elapses thoughts are more focused on the looming critical moment in Australia and expectations are being set realistically.

“One must presume that any new team coming in is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon noted recently and while Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a point to prove as well.

“The initial objective we want to show is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the correct procedures on the circuit. Once we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement subsequently.”

Racing Talent and Recruitment Push

In the summer they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their drivers for 2026, a pair notable for their invaluable experience in performing at the front in two top-tier teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the sentiment of combative optimism.

“Of course, we are pragmatic,” Bottas stated. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a difficult start, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there is every reason that we won't be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”

To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with personnel now up to in excess of 400 and intended to hit the objective of 600 members quickly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of completing an HQ at Fishers in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are developing the facility to produce the power unit, set for 2029 – for now they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a sophisticated organization, different from the movement in F1 for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred.

NASA Blueprint

“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” stated Lowdon just before the Silverstone race in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”

So they have implemented, as opposed to the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on different aspects of the mission in a multiple sites.

“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they escalate it to their team leader, that leader talks to a supervisor in another department, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” notes the CTO. “We give authority to people to handle things directly. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is far more efficient and more rapid.”

The Future

The effectiveness of this flexible approach will be tested in the pressure of racing next season and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the emerging American Colton Herta