The Cadillac F1 team Utilizes Apollo Program Playbook to Assemble Squad from the Ground Up for Australian Grand Prix.
Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally given the green light as Formula One’s most recent participant for the 2026 season. Establishing the organization from nothing has required a frenetic operating tempo that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As Formula One arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, the team understand time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the campaign to be hosted in the US, with around 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the first time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a monumental task, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the embryonic project in early 2023 soon after it was formed, when the team were without even an approved entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a knowing grin when considering the journey.
“There might be five minutes looking back at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, what an achievement what we have built in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the next minute you realize: ‘Yes, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A Unique Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in command of technical development at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has been quite like the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the owner, General Motors, into Formula One.
“Building an grand prix team from the ground up, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you won't have the chance to change team culture.”
With each day that goes by minds are increasingly concentrated on the looming moment of truth in Melbourne and expectations are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any new team entering the sport is likely to start at the back but just making it to the starting line will be an feat in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Nick Chester echoed this he thought the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“Our primary goal we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” he says. “In order that we show up and we perform competently. We seek to prove that we are a serious contender performing the correct procedures on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that we’re really credible, then we will focus on progression after that.”
Racing Talent and Hiring Drive
In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their vast knowledge in operating at the leading positions in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas expressed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Of course, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But we’re not there to remain at the rear. I believe given this organization, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to get relatively quickly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To realize that ambition recruitment has been in full swing, with employees now at over 400 and intended to attain the target of 600 members swiftly. In addition to their present headquarters at Silverstone, the squad are in the phase of finishing an headquarters at the Fishers location in Indianapolis and there is the GM plant in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are building the facility to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a intricate structure, at odds with the direction in Formula One for greater centralisation, and has prompted the innovative team culture to which Chester alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“It's closely based on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal just before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we recognize how difficult it is. The deadlines, are incredibly tight. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have implemented, rather than the traditional management structure, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of Apollo teams all tackling different aspects of the program in a different facilities.
“When you must follow a process where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that leader talks to a supervisor somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains the CTO. “So we empower staff to handle things directly. Moving away from management approval for each action is so much cleaner and quicker.”
The Future
The success of this agile strategy will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix when the season begins and there is a significant degree on the line for Formula One, too. The Cadillac team have recruited as their test driver the young Californian Colton Herta