Marcin Budkowski has opened up about the many factors that convinced him to join the Cadillac project, their long-term ambition, and his key priorities going forward as the team gears up for the second half of their maiden F1 campaign in 2026.
Cadillac announced on Wednesday that Budkowski has replaced Graeme Lowdon as Team Principal of the American outfit with immediate effect.
Following roles at Prost GP, Ferrari, McLaren, and the FIA, the 49-year-old served as Executive Director of the Alpine squad until his exit at the end of 2021. He has since worked as a television pundit in his native Poland.
What inspired Budkowski to join the Cadillac F1 team
Speaking at Cadillac’s virtual media roundtable, Marcin Budkowski shed more light on what attracted him to the American team’s F1 project.
Referring to the stiff political and commercial resistance they had faced before entering the sport in 2026, the Pole stated that Cadillac’s ambition was rather appealing to him. Underlining how the F1 grid’s newest team is building the project and its facilities from the ground up, he also commended them for turning up and putting their best foot forward in every round since pre-season testing.
“I think ambition is the key word really, as Dan [Towriss] mentioned. Throughout the entry process that was complicated, you know, Cadillac showed a lot of determination, a lot of resilience, and a lot of ambition to build a team.
“The team has been built from scratch. There’s some facilities in Silverstone, Indianapolis, the engine is going to be built in Charlotte. So, it shows the ambition of the project really in terms of setting it up from the ground and including the facilities.
“And then, the team is there, it’s shown up, you know, against a lot of odds because a lot of people thought it would be a big challenge. And I’m sure it was a huge challenge to put that team on the grid in the first race.
“But they were there [for] the first test, they’re here at every race. So again, you know, huge respect and admiration from me to Graeme [Lowdon] and to Dan for setting this up and for getting to where they got to in the time they had.”
How Budkowski reacted to the offer
In terms of what his immediate reaction was upon receiving the call to join Cadillac as their F1 Team Principal, Marcin Budkowski revealed that his discussions with CEO Dan Towriss and General Motors’ top management began a while back. Additionally, he clarified that the offer wasn’t made over a shock phone call that coincided with the decision to dismiss Lowdon.
“Look, it’s not that Dan called me out of the blue and said, ‘I want you to be team principal’. We’ve had a number of exchanges with Dan, and I think it was part of a reflection process that he was having.
“I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but it took a few discussions, obviously, to get to this stage, and I also had a few discussions with people at General Motors up to the very top, up to Mark Reuss, the chairman of General Motors, in the process.”
Budkowski on what separates Cadillac from other F1 projects
Disclosing how he had engaged in negotiations with multiple teams on the F1 grid in the past few years, Marcin Budkowski spoke in detail about what kind of project he wanted to lead and why Cadillac was the ideal choice for him.
The 49-year-old explained that the ambitious nature of the project, the abundance of funding, and the people involved being genuine motorsport enthusiasts made his decision to join Cadillac an easy one.
“From my side, I must say that I’ve had discussions. I’ve had discussions in the past years with more than half of the teams on the grid; some of them more advanced and some less advanced.
“But for me, it was important if I come back to this kind of leadership role, to be in a project that I believe in. And there are a few aspects to that.
“This project is very ambitious. It’s backed by the TWG Group, which is extremely involved in motorsport, but General Motors is one of the biggest car companies in the world with a lot of ambition, with funding, which wasn’t always the case in my previous ventures.
“Also, one thing that really made me very confident in joining is that all the people that I talk to, and all the people who effectively will be in the board of the team and in the top leadership of the team, are motorsport people. They’re all people who live motorsport, who understand motorsport, who’ve been very exposed to motorsport.
“And I think that’s very refreshing for me, because the conversation is completely different from the get-go. And there’s the ambition, there’s the desire to build a strong team, and eventually a competitive team, and a team that will be able to fight at the front.”
The road ahead
Claiming that he and Towriss share similar visions of the Cadillac’s future trajectory in F1, Marcin Budkowski acknowledged the pressure he would find himself under going forward. Nonetheless, he noted that these expectations are part and parcel of the sport and insisted that the entire team is ready to deal with the many challenges lying ahead.
“But there’s a real understanding of how challenging it is, of the timelines, of the road ahead. And I think since we started talking with Dan, I think our visions are very, very similar, and the ways we see things developing.
“There will be a lot of pressure on me, and I’m sure there will be expectations, and that’s logical and normal in this kind of role. But these expectations are not unreasonable and are not completely removed from the reality of Formula 1.
“I think everybody understands the size of the challenge ahead, but there is the commitment to tackle it. And I’m joining this with the same mindset.
“To be honest, that part for me was, you know, beyond all the foundations we talked about, and the backing, and etc., it’s the attitude and the vision, and actually being sat and talking to people who live and breathe motorsport, and who fundamentally understand motorsport.”
Budkowski discusses Cadillac’s long-term goal and the future of F1
Furthermore, Marcin Budkowski drew attention to their long-term objective of transforming Cadillac into a race-winning F1 squad.
Touching on the changes in the technical regulations in 2026 and the increasing impact of AI, the former Alpine boss reckoned that the sport would undergo a massive transformation in the future. He added that the teams would have to evolve accordingly while making short-term improvements.
“I think that the ambition is to build, you know, more than a team that’s there to participate. It’s a team that’s a winning organisation in the future and we’re far from that. But I think that’s the end goal for everybody and to build a team that’s focused on the future.
“You know, there’s a lot of changes in Formula 1, huge changes in regulations this year. There’s a huge societal change as well going on with AI taking over a lot of things. And I think it’s coming to Formula 1, but we’re at the very, very beginning of that.
“I think the teams of the future look very different from what they look now. So, it’s going to be about evolving what’s been put in place and improving it in the short term but also looking, you know, in the future. What does an F1 team look in the future? So, it’s about evolution but also about really shaping up what the future of an F1 team looks like.”
First priority
Asked what his first priority is as the new Team Principal and whether there are any lessons from his past stints with Ferrari, McLaren, and the FIA that can benefit the Cadillac F1 project, Marcin Budkowski stated his first order of business is to listen to and observe the employees at the factory to understand how they work as individuals and as a unit.
Drawing from the experience he has gained in his decades-long career in the sport, the 49-year-old asserted how crucial it is to maintain a seamless connection between the factory and the trackside operations when a team encounters persistent reliability woes.
“My first priority is going to be to listen, honestly, listen and observe in the factory, because I need to meet the people, I need to understand how they work, how they work together, how the various individuals and departments work together.
“But also, you know, throughout my F1 experience, I know that when a team is suffering reliability issues, as Cadillac had during the first half of the season, it’s a huge risk of creating a disconnect between the trackside operations and the factory. And that needs to be very, very strong in any Formula 1 team.”
What Budkowski’s first week as Cadillac F1 Team Principal will look like
Marcin Budkowski further elaborated on how his first week as Cadillac F1 boss will see him split his time between the personnel at the factory and the trackside team at Zandvoort and observe how well they work together.
Noting how the sheer expansion of the F1 calendar has made it difficult for the trackside team and the rest of the members at the factory to form a genuine connection, the Polish engineer reiterated that his short-term priority is to ensure both entities are on the same page for the remaining races of the season.
“That link needs to be very, very strong. So, that’s why I will share my first week between the factory and the track in Zandvoort, because I want to see both sides of the team and how they work together.
“I think that’s going to be the short-term priority: listen, observe, and make sure the two entities, if you want… I mean, it’s one team, one entity. But effectively, in today’s world when we have 24 races, the people from the factory and the people from the track don’t see each other very often, and that’s often an issue.
“When we had 16 races in F1, and we had much smaller teams, then people would spend a lot of time together at the factory. That’s not the case anymore, and I think that that connection is very, very important, especially in the short term, in the races we still have to compete in this year, and there are quite a few.”
Medium-term objectives
As far as his medium-term goals are concerned, Marcin Budkowski explained that he seeks to develop a comprehensive understanding of the Cadillac F1 team’s processes and the resources they have at their disposal.
Referring to General Motors’ role as their corporate parent and financial backer, the Warsaw native maintained that they have yet to fully exploit the technical expertise of the American car giant and all the other tools they have access to. At the same time, he also acknowledged how—as the newest team on the grid—they have had limited time to explore all their options.
“And then it’s going to be looking in-depth at the organisation, at the processes, at our tools, what we have, what we’re still building, what we need, and what General Motors has to offer. Because there’s a huge depth of technical expertise and tools there that doesn’t feel like it’s been completely used yet.
“Understandably, we’re talking about a team that had a few months to be built from the ground up and put a race car together and go racing with it.”
