The Cadillac F1 team Employs Apollo Program Strategy to Build Squad from Nothing for Australian Grand Prix.

A little more than twelve months previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as F1's latest entry for the 2026 season. Constructing the organization from nothing has entailed a frenetic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has compared to the Apollo program. As Formula One descends on Vegas this weekend, the team know time is getting tight.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the final race of the campaign to be held in the United States, with approximately three months to go before they hit the circuit for the maiden outing in Australia at the 2026 opener, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a never-ending task, they are conscious there will not be sufficient time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in early 2023 soon after it was created, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its center from that point and gets a wry smile when reflecting on the experience.

“There might be a short period looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Wow, how impressive what the team has created in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yeah, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Task

Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Fernando Alonso’s title-winning seasons of 2005/2006 and was in control of technical development at the new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no other project has truly matched the task of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the parent company, General Motors Corporation, into Formula One.

“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the possibility to transform organizational mindset.”

With each day that passes thoughts are sharper on the impending critical moment in Melbourne and goals are being managed.

“One must presume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an feat in itself,” Lowdon commented this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a point to prove as well.

“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we should be there,” Chester explains. “So that we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the track. After we prove that our credentials are solid, then we will focus on forward movement after that.”

Driver Lineup and Hiring Effort

In the summer they recruited Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in competing at the front in two of the sport’s biggest teams, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas expressed the mood of combative optimism.

“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and we expect probably a difficult start, because it's the top level of motorsport. But our goal isn't to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly to the front and taste victory.”

To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in full swing, with personnel now at more than 400 and intended to hit the goal of 600 swiftly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the organization are in the midst of finishing an main base at Fishers, Indiana in Indy and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, where they are developing the plant to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – in the meantime they will run Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a intricate organisation, contrary to the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.

Apollo Blueprint

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo project,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We’re realistic, we recognize how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”

So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a decentralized management akin to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on different aspects of the program in a different facilities.

“If you have to go through a protocol where an issue arises and they report it to their team leader, that leader communicates with a manager somewhere else, it is relayed back, the process is very slow,” says the CTO. “We give authority to team members to handle things directly. Moving away from managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”

The Future

The effectiveness of this agile approach will be evaluated in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their development driver the emerging American Colton Herta