Cadillac Replaces Lowdon with Budkowski in Mid-Season Shake-Up

Cadillac has replaced founding team principal Graeme Lowdon with Marcin Budkowski mid-season to address structural flaws and speed up its development. The move follows recurring production issues and brake problems that frustrated drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, with the team failing to move beyond its initial grid-entry progress.

Why it matters:

For a startup team approved less than a year before its debut, simply making the grid was an achievement. But ownership has lost patience with the squad's stagnation, signaling that meeting deadlines is no longer sufficient. Budkowski's arrival marks a shift from survival mode to technical leadership as Cadillac fights to build a competitive foundation.

The details:

• Lowdon built a 400-person operation across Silverstone and North Carolina, but car build quality and brake cooling issues plagued early races.
• CEO Dan Towriss informed Lowdon on the morning of the announcement. Bottas and Perez praised his foundational work while welcoming Budkowski's technical expertise.
• Shortcut fallout: Budkowski said the previous regime took necessary "wartime" shortcuts to get on the grid, but those decisions are now causing pain in design and materials.
• Missing DNA: The team has bright young talent but lacks collective experience. Budkowski noted the current car is essentially a prototype for a group building its first machine together.
• New home: Budkowski's first day coincided with Cadillac's move into its permanent Silverstone facility, replacing the provisional startup structure.

What's next:

Budkowski is targeting a major course correction for 2027, though some reliability fixes may come this year. Bottas wants better quality and setup precision without sacrificing next year's car, recognizing that the real leap must wait for the next chassis. With Aston Martin pulling ahead, Cadillac's new boss has limited time to impose his structure before the 2027 design cycle intensifies.