{"id":853697,"date":"2026-08-13T11:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853697\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T11:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:12:09","slug":"cadillac-f1-asked-who-do-you-think-you-are-amid-shock-team-boss-axe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/853697\/","title":{"rendered":"Cadillac F1 asked ‘who do you think you are’ amid shock team boss axe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guenther Steiner said the Cadillac<\/a> F1 team is \u201cnot very good\u201d at present and will have been performing below the company\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n

Steiner\u2019s comments were followed by the news that Graeme Lowdon had been replaced as Cadillac<\/a> team principal. But, Steiner also stressed the difficulties for a new team coming into Formula 1. He says it is a case of \u201cwho the hell do you think you are\u201d when a newcomer enters believing that it can catch the established teams, which all operate at the \u201ctop\u201d level.<\/p>\n

Guenther Steiner Cadillac F1 verdict in spotlight after Lowdon sack<\/p>\n

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for news you can trust.<\/p>\n

Cadillac confirmed the news on Wednesday that Lowdon had been replaced as team principal. Taking over at the helm of Formula 1\u2019s newest team is Marcin Budkowski, the former Alpine F1 executive director making his return to the sport.<\/p>\n

Cadillac CEO Dan Towriss confirmed to PlanetF1.com and others that Lowdon\u2019s exit was \u201cmy decision. It wasn\u2019t a mutual decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

It had been a respectable start to F1 life for Cadillac, though Hungary brought a setback. On top of being re-saddled with the unwanted status of F1 2026\u2019s slowest team, Cadillac also suffered a double DNF with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez retiring from the race through renewed brake issues.<\/p>\n

That was despite Bottas saying ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix that Cadillac had brought new parts to the Hungaroring to address this issue.<\/p>\n

Cadillac is still chasing its first point in Formula 1. Bottas\u2019 P13 in China serves as the American team\u2019s best result so far.<\/p>\n

Steiner said that Cadillac, realistically or not, will have been expecting better than this.<\/p>\n

Steiner\u2019s comments were potentially telling considering the exit of Lowdon later announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not very good, to say the least. We need to be honest about things,\u201d Steiner said of Cadillac, in typically blunt fashion, while speaking on the Up To Speed podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the expectation from a big company like Cadillac, for sure, it\u2019s better, it\u2019s higher than this.<\/p>\n

\u201cF1 is brutal in that way, and F1 has got one thing which a lot of people, having not been there, underestimate: in F1, you cannot come up the ranks like you do in football. You go to the third league, to the second, and then to the first league. No. In F1 you cannot go F3, F2, F1.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou come in from the side with the best of the best, and it\u2019s not easy and you need to be aware of that, you need to be conscious of that. Who are you going to compete with.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes people get dragged away thinking, \u2018Oh, I can do better than this.\u2019 But the level in Formula 1, it is very high. They are the best engineers, the best drivers. Everything is on top, and the industry itself is so sophisticated. Just to understand the sophistication, not even replicate it, is difficult. Especially if you haven\u2019t been there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy talking about what you have got. You have got a lot of people around to tell you, \u2018Yeah, you can do this because you have this great person with sh*tloads of money.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can buy talent, bring it in, but to attract them, it\u2019s not only money. You need a vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think some of the things they do very nicely, I must admit. But competition-wise, they are not where I think they expected it to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they expected, \u2018Oh, we\u2019ll start a little bit slower than everybody because we are new, and then we will catch up.\u2019 No, in F1, the opposite is happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are trying to catch up with people which were ahead of you before, and you are trying to catch up. So who the hell do you think you are?<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the best of the best, and all of a sudden you need to catch up, and to catch up you need to be better than them. But if you were as good as they were, why are you not there already with them. It is a very difficult thing to do.<\/p>\n

More on Cadillac F1 from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

Cadillac confirms Sergio Perez stance after Williams exit rumours<\/a><\/p>\n

Why was Graeme Lowdon removed by Cadillac? Dan Towriss explains shock change<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBut for everybody, for anybody, not only for the Cadillac people. This is not taking it personal against anybody at Cadillac. This is just very difficult. If you get in there, you need to go in there with your eyes wide open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cadillac\u2019s first race with Budkowski at the helm will be the Dutch Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Mat Coch<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next \u2013 F1 2027 driver market: How the F2 stars fit in<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guenther Steiner said the Cadillac F1 team is \u201cnot very good\u201d at present and will have been performing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,3550,817,813,816,17670,3552,818,44,17165,85],"class_list":["post-853697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cadillac","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-graeme-lowdon","tag-guenther-steiner","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}