EXCLUSIVE: Marcin Budkowski on shaping Cadillac’s next chapter, creating a winning culture and being in ‘action mode’

F1’s newest outfit underwent significant change in the summer as Marcin Budkowski took over from Graeme Lowdon as Cadillac Team Principal.

The 49-year-old’s experience in F1 is extensive. The long-time engineer has worked with multiple championship-winning teams, as well as governing body the FIA, and is the former Executive Director of Alpine. He’s also well versed in the media landscape having worked as a pundit with Eleven Sports Poland and Viaplay before landing his current gig.

With Cadillac’s next home race fast approaching in Austin, Budkowski sat down with F1.com to discuss how he’s settled into his role, what type of leader he’s going to be and why it’s important to build a winning culture as the squad embarks on the next phase of their journey.

‘We are definitely in action mode’

“It's been a bit of a whirlwind to be honest,” Budkowski tells me as we chat inside his office at the Sepang International Circuit. At this point it’s been just under two months since the Pole took charge of Cadillac.

His appointment came after CEO of the Cadillac F1 Team, Dan Towriss, decided the summer was the right time to “hand the baton off” to a new team principal, with Budkowski explaining at the time that he had a “number of exchanges” with Towriss amid interest from other F1 teams during his time away from the sport.

“I started the same day as the team was moving to the Silverstone facility,” Budkowski continues. “So, there was a feeling of novelty in the air from several sides, but it was great.

“It was super impressive for me also to work in this facility, because it's a really impressive and modern F1 standard facility. [I’ve been] getting to know people – quite a few people I knew from previous teams and previous experiences. [There’s] a lot of new faces, and then [I’ve been] progressively getting to meet everybody, speak to everybody and getting my head around how the team was structured and how it was operating – three days at the factory, four days at a track.”

As Budkowski reiterates consistently throughout our conversation, he’s been mightily impressed with what he’s seen so far given how new Cadillac are to the F1 world. Their approval to join the grid came in March 2025, meaning they had less than a full year to gear up for their debut campaign this season, so the progress has been monumental.

But there’s still been a price to pay given the rapidity with which they’ve had to work – Budkowski openly admits they’re seeing the consequences from some of the necessary shortcuts. That’s also why he listed listening and observing as one of his first priorities following his appointment, so he can get a full understanding of the situation before taking any next steps.

“It's not necessarily my first priority in terms of the team, but the logical thing to do is first to understand before you make any changes or take any actions,” he says. “I'm in this mixed phase now where I'm still meeting people, still having one-to-ones, still trying to spend time in the factory or in the garage talking to people to meet them and get feedback from within.

“But, at the same time, I'm already in a mode – and it's been a few weeks now – that I've identified a few things that I want to prioritise, a few things that I want to change or address and we're already working very hard on these things. In parallel, I still listen and absorb and [I’m] still being a sponge for information throughout the layers of the team. We are definitely in action mode, and we are prioritising and working hard on some of the areas that we need improving.”

A unique opportunity

Budkowski departed his role as Alpine Executive Director early in 2022 after four years with the squad and, in the time between then and now, he stayed active in the paddock courtesy of his media work with Eleven Sports Poland and Viaplay.

Becoming Cadillac F1 Team Principal is undoubtedly his biggest role to date, so what made this opportunity the right next chapter?

“I think it's a fantastic opportunity to be honest because it's a new team – even if it's already here racing for more than half a season,” he says. “It’s still in its building phase and, for me, having the opportunity to influence that, and to have an impact on how it's built, is very unique.

“It's not exactly the same as starting a team from the ground, but you still can have a lot more influence than within an established organisation. It's very ambitious, it's a great project, it is backed by TWG Motorsports and General Motors. It's got a very prestigious name in Cadillac. It's well-funded, but also our owners are all motorsport people.

“They love motorsport, they understand motorsport, they're winners, they want to win, they have a lot of ambition, but they're also realistic and understand the difficulty of the challenge, and that Formula 1 is like no other category in the world. We have 10 very competitive, very professional competitors on the grid that have taken years to get to where they are, and I think that mix of ambition, winning spirit and realistic approach was very important for me when I made the decision to join the project.”

‘There's the time for discussion and there's a time for action’

So, what type of person are Cadillac getting to lead them into their next phase as a Formula 1 team?

“Where to start?” Budkowski responds when I ask what kind of leader he is. “We talked about listening. I listen a lot, I approach things with an open mind – people and ideas and organisations.

“But I also like to act and like to move, so for me I'm very open. I'm listening, and I'm going to take all the views on board and try to get to the best possible solution for any problem. But then there's the time for discussion and there's a time for action.

“From the moment we make a decision, and we go for [it], I expect everybody to go strong. I'm very direct in my interactions, but I'm also very open. Trust and transparency are key in terms of building a cohesive management and team.

“But that's also why I like working for an American team. Americans are very direct and like action and that's how I am as well. I think, from that point of view, we get on really well with the owners and the leaders of this team as we see things very similarly.”

What’s more, while Budkowski’s experience at various championship-winning outfits will undoubtedly prove useful in his quest to build Cadillac into a competitive operation, he also arguably has more media experience than any of the other team principals in the paddock.

After all, communication and clarity are key skills in a leadership role – something a media pundit needs to have in abundance when explaining what’s been happening on track to fans – and the Pole has learned a lot from his time working in that field.

“Also not to trip on your questions!” he laughs, highlighting another useful skill gained. “[Punditry] certainly allowed me to stay in the Formula 1 ecosystem, keep my networks and stay aware of what was going on in terms of the sport, because the sport is not as far from being only what's happening on the track.

“There's a lot of things happening in the background as well. There’s politics, there's interesting dynamics in the paddock that you have to understand.

“It did show me how F1 is perceived also by the outside world a bit better, because when you are in this job you spend so much time in the factory or the track and sometimes you miss that perspective, and I think that's a useful one.

“But yeah, the reality is, I think someone mentioned to me the other day... a less experienced journalist asked me, ‘how do you get from doing media to being team principal?’ Well, with all respect, I've done a few other things before my media time that probably account for a little bit more in terms of my ability to take this role than being a TV pundit!”

‘It's not about reinventing the wheel’

Budkowski’s debut in F1 came back in 2001 at Prost Grand Prix, the squad founded by four-time World Champion Alain, before spending six seasons with Ferrari. He then moved over to McLaren in 2007, working across both trackside and at the team’s headquarters, before rising to Head of Aerodynamics in 2012.

A move to the FIA followed, working across their technical and sporting divisions as well as taking on the role of Deputy Race Director, before Renault tempted him back to the team side ahead of their Alpine rebrand. Given his time with those outfits, he knows the core values needed to turn a team into one that can win.

“There's no magic formula, but being where we are in terms of the history of this team – the short history of the team and the competitiveness level – it would be foolish not to look at what works elsewhere in the best teams,” he explains.

“It's not about reinventing the wheel. There are some principles that work pretty well and are visible in other teams.

"Equally, I think the culture and approach at Mercedes is different from the one at Red Bull, for example. Again, it will be different from the one at Ferrari, so there's no blueprint, and for that you have to build your own team culture and identity.

“It's also based on the people you have, but for me as a leader – listen and build trust. Transparency is very important to build a team with energy and action because, at the end of the day, there's a time for discussion and there's time for action.

“I'm someone who listens to all the inputs and takes every opinion into consideration. But at some point, you've got to make a decision, and from the moment you make a decision, I expect everybody to push in the same direction and I think that's very important.”

‘There are no shortcuts’

With Cadillac’s next phase underway as they gear up for their second home race of the season, their fans will understandably be keen to see where the journey goes from here. Budkowski, therefore, has a message for those invested in what’s to come.

“There are no shortcuts in modern F1,” he says. “There's just a lot of hard work – but the first thing is not about making good decisions, it's about avoiding bad decisions.

“There's a lot of truth in that, in terms of there's a lot of work in front of us and there's a lot of potential. My objective is to show progress in terms of track results – because that's what matters, the stopwatch and the results on the track – but also in the maturity of our organisation, the strength of the organisation and the factory as well as the operational excellence here at the track.

“Making the most every session, every weekend of the car we have, and that will set us on the path to go and progressively get to fight in the midfield and hopefully, at some point, build an organisation that's capable of fighting for podiums, for wins and for championships.

“But that's not the story of today. The story of today is to finish building a strong team and putting the right priorities in place and putting in the right trajectory. I think for the fans, for the people who support us, it's just to make sure [we show] that momentum, that progress, and show that vision to the front.

“It's going to take time. It's going to require some patience from our fans, but we have a lot of support already and I think we're excited to do that journey together with them, which is going to take time but it's hopefully going to deliver.”

He adds: “Sometimes it's difficult when you're in this job, you're so focused on the next step that you're [not here in the moment] sometimes [and] you have to stop for a second and realise that we're working in an incredible environment.

“But we're winners. Until we stand on that podium, we are not happy with ourselves and we want to continue pushing.”