Towriss wanted new team leadership for Cadillac F1’s development

Cadillac F1 CEO Dan Towriss says he spent the past months trying to identify a new team principal to replace Graeme Lowdon, as he felt a transition was required for the team’s next phase of development.

Lowdon was unexpectedly replaced by Marcin Budkowski on Wednesday, Cadillac instead hiring the former Alpine executive director who previously had engineering and management spells at Ferrari, McLaren and the FIA. Despite being just 11 races into Cadillac’s debut season in Formula 1, Towriss said he wanted a different approach to the team’s leadership now it’s on the grid.

“It was my decision, it wasn't a mutual decision,” Towriss said. “Really the process started a few months ago to explore what… really thinking about what the next phase for Cadillac Formula 1 looks like, what's the right timing? How would that look? And then the capabilities of the various folks out there.

“Obviously, we were delighted in the conversation with Marcin and how that relationship evolved. So Graeme and I spoke [on Wednesday] morning, so it is a very recent conversation from that perspective. But there's no easy way to make this transition within Formula 1.

“Can you imagine the press if Marcin's strolling through for a tour of the factory, or we're having these conversations? It becomes destabilizing at that point. It's important to respect the purview of the leadership that's in place at that time, and so it does compress the decision-making, the timeline, and how these things come together. It makes it feel more abrupt than it would be otherwise. But it's the nature of Formula 1, and it's the way it had to happen.”

Towriss said such a change in team principal was always something he had envisaged, although without initially having a specific timeframe in mind.

“Graeme and I always talked about that there would be a transition at some point," he said. "This decision was mine. I think there's a very narrow window of opportunity, when you look at what we're building, and an opportunity to build something new and innovative. What I didn't want to do was build something that's already been done, something that's old, and then try to improve it.

“The time for that change came sooner than was expected. But really, I wouldn't say that it’s the performance or the teething issues over the last few 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.”

Budkowski will meet the Cadillac team at its Silverstone factory for the first time on Monday before attending next weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix. Towriss believes the break in races offered the best opportunity to bring in a new leader.

“Now is the right time," he said. "We're at this inflection point with the summer break coming here, and Cadillac has gone through this initial build phase. Just reminding everyone that we built this team from a standing start and now as we look at the development phase, there's a real opportunity here to build something new, which has always been our ambition, and I think the change in leadership here fits that.

“While it's a short tenure from our first F1 season, Graeme and I have been building this team for nearly four years and so it was always the plan to get it to this point and then really hand the baton off to someone else and set things in motion for this next stage of development. So that's really what we have here.

“We're delighted to welcome Marcin to Cadillac Formula 1. We're excited about what he brings to the table, his background and all the pieces and so this is the perfect time to make that change as we go into the second half of our inaugural season as well as we start to think about building on the ’27 car.”