Cadillac Employs Apollo Program Approach to Construct Squad from Scratch for Australian Grand Prix.

Approximately twelve months ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were at last awarded the official approval as F1's newest participant for 2026. Building the team from scratch has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on the Vegas strip this weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.

The Race Against Time to Australia

At the last event of the championship to be hosted in the United States, with approximately a hundred days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the first race of 2026, Cadillac have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a monumental challenge, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.

The technical director, Nick Chester, joined the newly formed team in March 2023 soon after it was established, when the team were without even an confirmed place. He has been at its center ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the journey.

“You can have a brief moment looking back at what you have accomplished and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what the team has created in less than three years,’” he says. “And then the very next instant you consider: ‘Well, we still have a great deal to do.’”

A Unique Task

The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of 2005/2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has truly matched the challenge of introducing the quintessentially American Cadillac brand, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the owner, General Motors Corporation, into the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Building an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he observes. “It is like nothing else. In an established team you rarely get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”

With every day that elapses minds are more focused on the looming decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being handled.

“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an accomplishment in itself,” Lowdon stated this year and while Chester echoed this he felt the squad had a statement to make as well.

“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he says. “So that we turn up and we perform competently. We aim to demonstrate that we are a serious contender performing the right things on the circuit. When we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we aim to demonstrate improvement after that.”

Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive

In August they signed Sergio Pérez and Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a duo notable for their priceless expertise in performing at the leading positions in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and Valtteri Bottas reflected the sentiment of combative optimism.

“Certainly, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and it’s going to be almost certainly a difficult start, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this setup, with this team, this staff, it's entirely possible we can't manage to get relatively quickly to the front and enjoy some success.”

To that end staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with personnel now reaching over 400 and planned to hit the target of 600 members rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the process of finishing an headquarters at Fishers, Indiana in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the 2029 engine, set for 2029 – until then they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, contrary to the movement in F1 for greater centralisation, and has inspired the new cultural approach to which Chester alluded.

NASA Inspiration

“It’s highly modelled on the Apollo program,” remarked the team principal ahead of the British GP in July. “We’re realistic, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are incredibly tight. OK, we aren't launching a lunar mission, but it feels like it sometimes.”

So they have embraced, instead of the usual hierarchical system, a non-hierarchical approach akin to that of the space agency's, where there were a range of project teams all focusing on different aspects of the program at a different facilities.

“When you must follow a procedure where someone has a problem and they escalate it to their manager, that leader talks to a supervisor at a different location, it goes back down the chain, the process is very slow,” explains the CTO. “Therefore we enable team members to really get on with it. Avoiding managerial sign-off for everything is so much cleaner and quicker.”

What Lies Ahead

The success of this flexible approach will be proven in the intensity of Grand Prix in 2026 and there is no little amount riding on this for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their reserve driver the young Californian Colton Herta