The Cadillac F1 team Utilizes Apollo Program Playbook to Construct Squad from the Ground Up for Australian Startline.

A little more than a full year previously at the Vegas Grand Prix, Cadillac were finally granted the official approval as F1's latest participant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the NASA lunar mission. As F1 converges on the Vegas strip this race weekend, Cadillac are aware time is getting tight.

The Countdown to Melbourne

At the final race of the season 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, the Cadillac F1 project have made significant progress but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are aware there will not be adequate time.

The CTO, Nick Chester, became part of the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 soon after it was created, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a amused expression when reflecting on the experience.

“You can have a short period reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Incredible, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he says. “And then the next minute you consider: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”

An Unprecedented Challenge

The CTO had success at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's title-winning seasons of 2005 and 2006 and was in control of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but nothing has truly matched the task of bringing the all-American Cadillac name, a manufacturer-backed entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into Formula One.

“Creating an grand prix team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he observes. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to alter team culture.”

With each passing day that passes thoughts are increasingly concentrated on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and targets are being handled.

“You have to assume 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,” Graeme Lowdon stated this year and while the CTO echoed this he thought the organization had a statement to make as well.

“The initial objective we aim to demonstrate is that we should be there,” he emphasizes. “So we show up and we perform competently. We want to show that this is a professional operation doing the proper actions on the track. After we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression subsequently.”

Driver Lineup and Recruitment Drive

In August they recruited Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their pilots for the 2026 season, a pair remarkable for their invaluable experience in operating at the sharp end in two of the sport’s biggest teams, Red Bull and Mercedes-AMG, and the Finnish driver echoed the mood of combative optimism.

“Naturally, we are pragmatic,” he commented. “We have a massive task to do, and we expect probably a challenging beginning, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we’re not there to finish last. I believe with this setup, with this team, these people, it's entirely possible we shouldn’t be able to progress rapidly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”

To realize that ambition hiring has been in overdrive, with employees now at in excess of 400 and planned to hit the objective of 600 members rapidly. In addition to their current base at the Silverstone circuit, the team are in the process of finishing an HQ at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the General Motors facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they are constructing the center to build the power unit, scheduled for the 2029 season – until then they will use Ferrari power units – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a complex organisation, at odds with the movement in the sport for more centralization, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester referred to.

Space Mission Inspiration

“It's closely based on the NASA moon mission,” remarked Lowdon shortly before the Silverstone race in the summer. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. OK, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”

So they have embraced, rather than the traditional management structure, a flat management structure comparable to that of Nasa’s, where there were a assortment of project teams all working on different aspects of the project across a variety of locations.

“When you must follow a procedure where a challenge emerges and they report it to their manager, that supervisor consults a manager at a different location, it goes back down the chain, it becomes inefficient,” explains Chester. “We give authority to staff to take charge. Eliminating managerial sign-off for all decisions is far more efficient and more rapid.”

The Future

The efficacy of this nimble approach will be proven in the heat of competition when the season begins and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta