Cadillac’s Formula 1 CEO Dan Towriss says the decision to part company with Graeme Lowdon was his call, but was part of a planned transition that came earlier than anticipated.
Lowdon was involved with Cadillac’s Formula 1 project for a prolonged period, in advance of it receiving an entry, and was effectively responsible for building the team from scratch during it initial existence.
Lowdon was appointed Team Principal ahead of its debut campaign but was released on Wednesday after just 11 grands prix of Cadillac’s existence.
“I think Graeme and I always talked about that there would be a transition at some point,” Towriss said. “This decision was mine. I think that the time for that change came sooner than was expected. I wouldn’t say that it’s the performance or the teething issues over the last few [race] weeks, it’s really about just having a clear vision on what we’re building in the future, the rate of progress, and making sure that that matches the ambitions of ownership.”
Towriss explained that “the process started a few months ago to really explore thinking about what the next phase for Cadillac Formula 1 looks like” and “the capabilities of the various folk out there.”
Cadillac Formula 1 Team
Cadillac F1’s new team principal, Marcin Budkowski.
Lowdon’s replacement, Marcin Budkowski, has a technical background, having held aerodynamicist roles with Ferrari and McLaren, prior to senior leadership roles with the FIA and Alpine.
Budkowski has remained in Formula 1 circles since his departure from Alpine in 2022, most prominently as a pundit for Polish TV, and will visit Cadillac’s UK base for the first time this coming Monday.
“I think at the beginning you just have to approach it with humility and just see what’s been built, who’s there, how do they work, how the team operates,” Budkowski said on his early priorities.
“You always have a privilege as you have a fresh set of eyes. There’s all these things you see that are easy to see when you when you just walk in.”
“As an external person coming in, you always have a privilege as you have a fresh set of eyes. There’s all these things you see that are easy to see when you when you just walk in. So it’s going to be a combination of what are the low hanging fruits, what can be done better quickly, but also review everything that’s been done: the processes, how people work, how people are organized, the way they interact together.”
While Towriss gave short shrift to the notion that Cadillac’s reliability issues were Lowdon’s downfall, Budkowski acknowledged they are a short-term priority.
“It’s a new group of people,” Budkowski said. “They are learning together and they are failing together. And failure is a part of learning in Formula 1. It’s not pleasant. But these things have clearly prevented the team from understanding more, because mileage at the end of the day during the race, it’s all data that you accumulate. It’s all understanding of the car. And I think that needs to be fixed very, very urgently. I’m sure there is determination in the team to do that.”
Cadillac is continuing to develop across multiple bases, with seven units across Silverstone’s Business Park—opposite the circuit—along with facilities in Concord, North Carolina, and Warren, Michigan, while its new facility at Fishers, Indiana, remains under construction.
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Autoweek understands that some UK-based personnel from some departments have been informed that they must relocate to Indiana by January 2027 or they will face mandatory redundancy, a contradiction to the initial recruitment process.
Towriss insisted that there is no desire for Cadillac to hire solely based on nationality.
“It isn’t a point in time to say that it’s this percentage in the US and this percentage in the UK,” Towriss said. “Obviously, with the concentration of F1 talent in the UK, the bulk of our recruitment has been in the UK and is moving into a more US-centric phase going forward, not moving people, but continuing to grow the organization in other locations, but also looking at the innovation capabilities from other industries.
“From our standpoint, it really gives us a chance to develop talent in the US, which will really redefine what it means to have a US team in Formula 1, to look at those capabilities, to continue to recruit the best of Formula 1 in the UK, and hopefully have the best of both worlds.
“And we’ll be making decisions that are performance based, not kind of sovereign nation based, as we look at what is best for Cadillac Formula 1 and what gives us the best competitive posture in the sport.”
U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.