'Bit of a shock to the system' – Budkowski reveals first impressions leading Cadillac

Marcin Budkowski admits that returning to Formula 1 has been "a bit of a shock to the system", having been put in charge of the Cadillac team.

The Pole has been with the American team for nearly a month, having replaced Graeme Lowdon as Team Principal just before the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.

Budkowski is no stranger to F1, having worked with multiple championship-winning Formula 1 teams across sporting and technical divisions and within senior leadership teams, including Prost, McLaren, Alpine and the FIA.

Having left the sport in 2022, Budkowski found himself in a new role with media organisations Eleven Sports Poland and Viaplay, before the call from Cadillac.

Ahead of last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, Budkowski admitted that the return to a prominent role in the sport had been a bit of a shock.

"What hits you first is the pace of F1, which I knew well but a few years out of the sport and it's a bit of a shock to the system because it's incredibly fast-paced, technical and hard-working, especially when you start in a new team and new project," said Budkowski during Friday's teams' press conference.

"The other thing is the first time I sat again on the pit wall in FP1 in Zandvoort and I had 12 channels blasting in my ears. It took me a little bit of time for my brain to get used to it.

"But the reality is, if you bring it back to the essentials and basics, it's about people, it's about building the team. It's about putting the right people in the right positions, getting everybody to work together and in terms of leadership, give them a vision and align everybody in that direction. That hasn't changed."

Cadillac have endured a difficult maiden season in F1 so far, remaining the only team on the grid yet to score a point, with Valtteri Bottas' P13 in the Chinese Grand Prix the team's best result to date.

Despite the lack of pace and reliability so far, Budkowski has been encouraged by what he has seen, despite having been at the helm for only three races.

"I've seen a lot of good things in the team, and it's pretty impressive given the time they had to build the team and conditions with the entry and everything.

"A lot of good things, there's no legacy compared to some other teams. There's a lot of open-minded, constructive discussions going on but there's also a number of shortcuts that are being taken, which is inevitable when you build a new team in such a time.

"It's about working in some areas that need more attention. In the short-term, reliability. We've seen we've struggled with that in some areas and just getting the operational excellence to the next level, which is not the level of a top team as of today, but that's understandable.

"Longer term, there's some clearer priorities emerging for what we need to do and better, mostly to improve our performance and our pace."