Cadillac sack Graeme Lowdon: What we learnt about F1 team's next steps, Sergio Perez's future and reliability focus

A week before Formula 1’s return to action in Zandvoort, Cadillac provided the unexpected news of the sport’s summer break by removing Graeme Lowdon as team principal and replacing him with former Alpine chief Marcin Budkowski.

The decision was taken by Cadillac F1 team chief executive Dan Towriss, who spoke to the media along with new recruit Budkowski soon after the surprise announcement to address some of the main questions surrounding both that significant change and other talking points at the sport's newest team mid-way through their debut season.

Here are four things we learned...

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'A narrow window of opportunity' - why did Cadillac make Lowdon change now?

While changes of team principal in Formula 1 are far more frequent than they used to be, with all teams except Mercedes changing their chief at least once since the end of 2022, mid-season exits are still not quite as commonplace as they are in football, for instance.

So the sudden nature of Lowdon's exit, which had not been the subject of any recent speculation, came as a surprise, particularly as Cadillac are just 11 races into their first season on the grid and had always warned they would likely be spending the campaign racing towards the back of the field.

Towriss said the plan had always been for Lowdon to eventually "hand the baton off to someone else" for the next stage of Cadillac's development but admitted "that the time for that change came sooner than was expected".

"I think Graeme and I always talked about that there would be a transition at some point," said team chief executive Towriss, who also runs TWG Motorsports which founded the F1 outfit with General Motors.

"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.

"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 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 matches the ambitions of ownership."

Fixing reliability problems identified as 'urgent' task by new boss Budkowski

While Towriss downplayed the significance of what he called the rookie team's "teething issues" on track in the timing of his decision to remove Lowdon, Cadillac's progress in their maiden season has clearly been hampered by reliability problems.

The team recorded just one two-car race finish in the seven races leading up to the summer break with overheating brakes proving to be a consistent issue on the MAC-26.

Budkowski, who starts work at the factory on Monday, said that they needed to fix their reliability problems "very, very urgently" as it was compromising the team from getting the most out of the upgrade packages being brought to the track.

"There are also reliability issues that have marred the team in the first part of the season," said Budkowski.

"In some part it's understandable, it's a new team, it's a new group of people, 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 a 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 but there will be a strong focus on sorting the issues we are having at the moment because otherwise there's no point in developing if you can't race the parts that you're bringing."

Cadillac 'very confident' of keeping Perez despite Williams links

While the US-owned team represents F1's first start-up for a decade, the outfit opted to ensure they had a shortage of experience behind the wheel for their first season by signing up Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, who have over 500 race starts and 16 grands prix wins between them.

Perez has outperformed Bottas so far on their respective returns to the grid with the Mexican veteran since linked with potential other drives for 2027, including Williams were Carlos Sainz to move elsewhere.

While aware of that speculation, Towriss is confident Perez will stay with them into 2027.

"Checo has been a tremendous asset to the team," he said. "He's driven very well and certainly has pushed quite hard.

"I'm very confident that Checo is going to remain with Cadillac and we're not distracted by the Williams rumours for a second.

"We're very confident in the relationship here and that you're going to see him piloting the Cadillac F1 car."

Cadillac themselves have been linked with other younger drivers, notably Ferrari-backed youngster Rafael Camara, the 21-year-old rising star from Brazil who is the reigning F3 champion and sits third in his maiden season of F2.

Towriss said he was "very happy" with his current experienced duo although did not shut the door on the prospect of hiring a younger gun sometime in the future.

"It's a great question, whether a younger driver would come in and push the team, it's certainly something that we think about," he said. "We've got two experienced drivers that we're very happy with, that are pushing the team and will continue to push them.

"I'll throw the caveat though, it's Formula 1 and things can always change. There are no changes planned at the moment for 2027, but things can always change.

"But I know there's been some of the rumours out there with some of the young drivers, they're not substantiated, so that's not something I would focus on. We're not focused on that at the moment."

'Different rules but the same game' - what next for Cadillac as they plot move up grid?

Cadillac represents the 49-year-old Budkowski's first job at an F1 team since he left his executive director role at Alpine at the start of 2022, although he has remained a regular in the paddock owing to his work with Polish TV.

It will be the fifth different team he has worked at, while he also has the experience of three years at governing body the FIA, where he headed up its technical department to 2017 before joining Renault.

Cadillac are backed by American car giant General Motors, who ultimately plan to build their own engine, and Budkowski brings experience of working on both sides of the sport's regulatory fence.

Asked how the sport had changed in his four years away from a front-line role, Budkowski said: "The fight is really, really ruthless. One thing that strikes me is how competitive all the teams are and how good and professional all the teams are.

"In other aspects, it's different rules but the same game. At the end of the day, I don't think in my role it's going to be about this regulation or that regulation, it will be a slightly higher-level view of it.

"It's how do we steer the regulations in the future in our favour? Because the regulatory process is for the good of the sport but there's also a lot of self-interest in it, and I've got experience in that from my time at the FIA.

"You have to be the best everywhere, you have to put attention to detail, and in the era of the cost cap, you can't buy performance anymore and you can't buy your way out of a mistake either."

Towriss also underlined that Cadillac are ultimately in F1 to win, making clear they needed to think both short and long-term to ensure they evolve in the best way to be on top of future developments such as the rise of AI technology.

"The ambition is to build more than a team that is there to participate, it's a team that's a winning organisation in the future," added the 54-year-old American.

"We're far from that, but I think that's the end goal for everybody, and to build a team that's focused on the future.

"There's a lot of changes in Formula 1, huge changes in regulations this year. There's a huge societal change as well going on with AI taking over a lot of things, and I think it's coming to Formula 1, but it's the very, very beginning of that.

"And I think the teams of the future look very different from what they look now. So it's going to be about evolving what's been put in place and improving it in the short term, but also looking in the future at what does an F1 team look in the future.

The Formula 1 season resumes after the summer break with a Sprint weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix from August 21-23, with every session live on Sky Sports. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime

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