Cadillac has appointed Marcin Budkowski as its new Formula 1 team principal during the summer break, replacing Graeme Lowdon as the American outfit enters the next phase of its debut F1 campaign. The leadership change comes with Cadillac seeking to move beyond the initial task of establishing the team and place greater emphasis on car development, operational efficiency and on-track performance.
Budkowski brings experience from several major Formula 1 organisations, having previously worked with Ferrari, McLaren, the FIA and Renault/Alpine. His arrival represents a return to frontline team management after several years away and comes at an important stage for a Cadillac Formula 1 project that was built from the ground up ahead of its 2026 entry.
Marcin Budkowski takes over as Cadillac F1 team principal
Cadillac has presented the switch from Graeme Lowdon to Marcin Budkowski as a planned transition rather than simply a reaction to results. The team’s structure is moving from the initial creation and build-up phase towards a period in which extracting performance from the organisation and the car becomes increasingly important.
Lowdon leaves the team principal position having served as the first person to lead Cadillac in Formula 1. CEO Dan Towriss thanked him for his role in establishing the operation, emphasising that his work created the foundation from which Cadillac can now pursue its sporting ambitions.
The outgoing team principal had overseen preparations for the manufacturer’s arrival on the grid, including the development of an organisation operating across multiple locations and its technical relationship with Ferrari. Cadillac entered Formula 1 using Ferrari power units and gearbox internals while developing other major components itself, part of its longer-term effort to operate as a genuine constructor.
Budkowski brings experience from Ferrari, McLaren, FIA and Alpine
Marcin Budkowski’s Formula 1 career stretches back more than two decades and includes technical, regulatory and senior management responsibilities. After completing his studies, he entered motorsport in 2001 as an aerodynamicist with Prost before moving to Ferrari the following year.
Budkowski remained at Maranello between 2002 and 2007, a period in which Ferrari collected multiple championships. He then sought a new challenge with McLaren, initially working in a range of aerodynamic positions both at the factory and trackside.
His time at McLaren included the team’s 2008 title-winning season. Budkowski continued to progress through its technical structure and became head of aerodynamics in 2012 before ending his seven-year spell with the British team in 2014.
The next chapter of his career took him away from a conventional team role and into Formula 1’s regulatory structure. Budkowski joined the FIA as Formula 1 technical and sporting coordinator and subsequently became head of the governing body’s Formula One technical department in 2017.
He later returned to team operations with Renault as executive technical director. Budkowski stayed with the organisation as it evolved into Alpine and became closely involved with its day-to-day management, working alongside senior executives and directors to ensure the team met its objectives.
His responsibilities extended beyond purely technical matters. Budkowski was also involved with human resources and finance in managing recruitment and budgets, experience that is particularly relevant to the challenge he now inherits at a relatively new Formula 1 organisation operating within the championship’s financial restrictions.
In January 2021, he was appointed a director of Alpine F1 Team before ultimately leaving the French operation in 2022 after serving as Executive Director. His appointment by Cadillac therefore marks his return to an operational leadership position in Formula 1.
Why Cadillac is changing leadership during its debut season
The timing of the move reflects where Cadillac believes its F1 programme has now reached. Building an entirely new Formula 1 organisation required an initial focus on infrastructure, recruitment, processes and ensuring the team was capable of reaching the grid. The priorities are now shifting increasingly towards making that structure deliver performance.
Budkowski’s task will be to guide the organisation through that transition. One of the priorities he has identified is maximising the rate of car development while remaining within the available budget, alongside bringing all the departments required to compete at the highest level into full operational effectiveness as quickly as possible.
Those objectives are particularly significant because Cadillac has yet to score its first points in its rookie campaign. The American team remained on zero at the summer break, underlining the scale of the performance challenge despite successfully completing the enormous task of becoming Formula 1’s newest entrant. The 2026 constructors’ standings have reflected how difficult that first season has been.
The leadership change therefore begins at a point when Cadillac must increasingly turn its foundations into measurable progress on the circuit. Infrastructure alone is no longer the main target; improving the car, making the organisation operate more efficiently and converting development work into competitive gains will form the next stage of the programme.
Marcin Budkowski set for Cadillac debut at Zandvoort
Marcin Budkowski is due to make his official debut as Cadillac team principal at the Dutch Grand Prix when Formula 1 returns from its summer break. Zandvoort will therefore provide the first race weekend of a new leadership era for the championship’s American newcomer.
The 2026 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort will not immediately determine whether the restructuring has worked, but it will mark the beginning of the phase Cadillac has identified as being increasingly centred on sporting performance.
Budkowski inherits an operation that Lowdon helped establish from its earliest stages and must now accelerate its competitive development. His broad Formula 1 background, spanning aerodynamic departments, the FIA’s regulatory structure and senior team management, gives Cadillac a leader familiar with both the technical and organisational demands of the championship.
The immediate objective remains clear. Cadillac must transform the structure assembled for its Formula 1 arrival into a more competitive racing team, optimise development within its financial limits and begin closing the gap that has left it searching for its first championship points. That process will officially enter its next chapter when Budkowski assumes control at Zandvoort.
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