Cadillac Utilizes Apollo Program Playbook to Build Squad from Scratch for Australian Race Debut.

Just over a full year in the past at the Nevada Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the go-ahead as the world of Formula One's newest participant for 2026. Establishing the organization from the ground up has required a hectic pace of work that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the NASA lunar mission. As the sport arrives on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac know the deadline is approaching.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the last event of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over a hundred days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will not be enough hours in the day.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the squad were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center since then and gets a knowing grin when reflecting on the journey.

“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you’ve done and go: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you realize: ‘Well, there is still a great deal to do.’”

A Unique Task

Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in Alonso's victorious seasons of the mid-2000s and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes-Benz Formula E team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the task of launching the all-American Cadillac name, a works entry sponsored by the owner, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Building an grand prix team from scratch, when will you ever have the possibility to do that?” Chester remarks. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the opportunity to alter cultural approach.”

With each day that goes by focus are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and expectations are being managed.

“You have to assume that any new team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” Lowdon stated recently and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he thought the squad had a point to prove as well.

“The initial objective we want to show is that we belong on the grid,” he emphasizes. “So we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we’re a proper team performing the right things on the track. When we’ve shown that we’re really credible, then we want to show improvement after that.”

Pilot Selection and Hiring Drive

In the summer they contracted Sergio Perez and Bottas as their racers for the 2026 season, a duo remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of determined optimism.

“Certainly, we have a realistic outlook,” Bottas stated. “We face a massive task to do, and we expect most likely a tough opening, because this is Formula One. But we aren't joining to finish last. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these people, there is every reason that we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”

To that end hiring has been in full swing, with personnel now reaching in excess of 400 and intended to attain the goal of six hundred rapidly. In addition to their existing facility at the UK base, the organization are in the process of completing an main base at Fishers in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM plant in North Carolina, where they are building the facility to manufacture the new engine, planned for 2029 – until then they will use power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organization, at odds with the movement in the sport for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO referred.

Apollo Inspiration

“It's closely based on the Apollo project,” said the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in mid-season. “We’re realistic, we understand how tough it is. The timelines, they’re super, super, super short. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”

So they have implemented, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of Apollo teams all working on various components of the mission in a different facilities.

“In a system where you follow a procedure where an issue arises and they raise it up to their manager, that manager talks to a manager somewhere else, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” says Nick Chester. “So we empower team members to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”

What Lies Ahead

The effectiveness of this agile methodology will be evaluated in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is a significant degree riding on this for Formula One, too. Cadillac have signed as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta