Cadillac Turns to Budkowski After Pointless F1 Start
Cadillac has changed team principals midway through its debut Formula 1 season, handing Marcin Budkowski control as Graeme Lowdon departs with the American team last in the championship and still searching for its first point.
Budkowski will lead Cadillac’s trackside operation from next weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. The 49-year-old Polish-French engineer inherits a team that successfully reached the grid, but has yet to escape Q1 or finish inside the points after 11 races.
Lowdon Built It — Budkowski Must Make It Competitive
Cadillac has presented the reshuffle as a planned transition from its initial construction phase into the next stage of competitive development.
Perhaps it was. Even so, the timing matters.
Lowdon’s immediate task was enormous: create an entirely new Formula 1 constructor, recruit hundreds of people, establish facilities across multiple locations, sign Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas and put two functioning cars on the 2026 grid.
He achieved that. Cadillac chief executive Dan Towriss credited Lowdon with establishing the team’s foundations and helping guide the project from an ambitious proposal into Formula 1’s 11th constructor.
Getting there, however, was only phase one. Cadillac has now reached the point where simply existing is no longer enough.
Lowdon built the team. Budkowski must make it competitive.
Why Budkowski Fits Cadillac’s Next Phase
Budkowski is no conventional team-principal appointment. His career combines engineering, regulation, management and the sort of paddock knowledge that cannot be downloaded from a simulator.
He began as an aerodynamicist with Prost before joining Ferrari during its dominant championship-winning period in the early 2000s. Seven years at McLaren followed, culminating in a promotion to head of aerodynamics.
Budkowski then crossed to the FIA, initially working as Formula 1 technical and sporting coordinator before becoming head of the governing body’s F1 technical department. Renault brought him back to the other side of the fence in 2018, appointing him executive director with responsibility for the Enstone operation.
He later assumed a broader leadership role when Renault became Alpine and restructured its management for 2021.
That unusually broad experience makes him a logical choice for Cadillac. This is not merely a slow car requiring more downforce. It is a young organisation that must improve its design, communication, development and race execution simultaneously — all while operating beneath Formula 1’s cost cap.
Budkowski identified his immediate priority as “maximizing car development within the cost cap and turning every team function on to compete.”
That is corporate language, but the underlying message is blunt: Cadillac must become quicker at understanding problems, choosing solutions and getting them onto the car.
Zero Points Tell Only Part of the Story
Cadillac reached the summer shutdown 11th in the 2026 Constructors’ Championship, with Pérez and Bottas 22nd and 21st respectively in the Drivers’ standings.
Neither driver has reached Q2. Bottas recorded the team’s best official finish with 13th in China, while Pérez appeared to have earned Cadillac’s first point by finishing tenth on the road in Monaco. A penalty for lining up incorrectly at the restart subsequently dropped him to 15th.
There have been brief signs that the Ferrari-powered MAC-26 possesses enough pace to trouble the back of the midfield. Cadillac has rarely been able to sustain them across an entire weekend.
Overheating, brake trouble, suspension failures and other reliability problems have repeatedly reduced running or ended races. Hungary supplied a particularly grim farewell to the first half of the season: Cadillac locked out the final row before both cars retired, Bottas suffering a fiery brake failure.
Our 2026 F1 half-season report gave Cadillac some allowance because, unlike Audi, it entered Formula 1 without inheriting an existing constructor. Building a new team from nothing explains many of its difficulties. It cannot excuse them indefinitely.
Zandvoort Leaves No Time for a Gentle Introduction
Budkowski’s first weekend in charge will be the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix from 21 to 23 August.
Zandvoort’s Sprint format gives Cadillac only one practice session before competitive running begins, so Budkowski will have little opportunity for a leisurely paddock tour. His immediate influence will inevitably be limited; no management appointment can manufacture missing performance during the summer shutdown.
The more meaningful test will unfold over the remaining 11 rounds. Cadillac needs cleaner weekends, fewer mechanical failures, measurable development and, sooner rather than later, its first championship point.
Budkowski has spoken about creating an elite organisation capable of making faster, better-informed decisions. Cadillac’s owners ultimately expect considerably more than an occasional fight at the back, but every successful Formula 1 project begins by learning how to move forwards.
Lowdon got Cadillac into Formula 1. Budkowski’s job is to get it out of last place — and eventually into the fight it was created to join.
5 F1 Fan comments on “Cadillac Turns to Budkowski After Pointless F1 Start”
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Im not sure sacking GL will help anything, he knows the team hes been there since the start , yes brake problems etc etc etc etc , but everyone accepted that, Now Herr Budweisser , ill call him Mr job swop, as thats all hes been doing the last few years but nomatter, bring on the racing
On the day before yesterday, I initially thought Lowdon would’ve been hard done by before finding out that such a transition had been planned for a little while, even if the final decision wasn’t mutual.
Nevertheless, this news totally surprised me, largely because Lowdon had just returned to properly working in F1 this season.
On the other hand, I’d half-forgotten Budkowski since his Alpine departure & didn’t think he’d return to working in F1.
Btw, point-less rather than pointless, which isn't quite the same.
Yeah but thats the gospel according to Dan, king of the egg heads,unlikely we will hear the real story from GL listening to Danny boy in his sky interview , he did the perfect interview of talking a lot but saying absolutely nothing.... not particularly impressive...!
Who knows, perhaps GL will someday in the more distant future reveal the real story since people usually wait until some time has passed from up-to-date relevance before disclosing things about an unclear matter.