Cadillac have opted to replace Graeme Lowdon as Team Principal with former Alpine Executive Director Marcin Budkowski. The move signals a shift from the initial build phase into the next stage of racing performance.
F1 newcomers Cadillac have changed things up at the top by drafting in experienced engineer and former Alpine chief Marcin Budkowski to replace Graeme Lowdon as Team Principal with immediate effect. The American squad made their debut in Australia earlier this season, a little over a year after the team were granted approval to join the sport, with Lowdon appointed Team Principal at the end of 2024.
Under his leadership, in tandem with CEO of TWG Motorsports Dan Towriss, Lowdon spearheaded the mission to get a new team off the ground from a blank sheet of paper, from recruiting staff to building out the operation. Following weeks of discussions, Towriss and the General Motors leadership team decided that change was needed and opted to part ways with Lowdon and replace him with Budkowski.
Budkowski comes with immense Formula 1 experience. He is an engineer by trade and has experience working with world championship winning teams Ferrari, McLaren and Renault, under the Alpine brand. He has led engineering departments, worked with governing body the FIA within their sporting and technical divisions, and led teams of more than 700 people through his senior leadership role at Alpine.
Helpfully, Budkowski was available immediately, rather than having a long gardening leave period, as he was focusing on a few different projects including working as a broadcaster for Polish TV. It culminated in the team having a strong foundation with two cars, piloted by Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, on the start line in Australia and earning the respect of their rivals with their early performance.
However, as they entered the summer break, the American team had yet to score their maiden point in Formula 1 and, while they were making progress, their reliability was disappointing. They suffered a chronic problem with overheating brakes, which they have failed to cure despite bringing fixes to events, and that stunted their progress.
While Cadillac knew Formula 1 would be tough and that it would take time to become a contender, this is a very ambitious project that is well funded and the slow progress plus having a recurring issue was frustrating. In the background, sources say the team have been considering their senior leadership operation for some time, with current and former senior paddock personnel involved in the discussions.
Marcin Budkowski has a wealth of experience in Formula 1. So, in many respects, he was the ideal solution for what Cadillac described as their next phase, moving from the initial build phase into the next stage of racing performance. Budkowski started work on Wednesday and will be in the factory at Silverstone on Monday as he begins his assimilation into the project.
It will then be onwards to Zandvoort where the season resumes, with 12 Grands Prix still to go. The Pole will likely take the next few months to assess the operation before determining what changes and strengthening needs to be done going forward, though it is believed more staff are already set to join the team in the future.
There will be a short term challenge, though, and that is utilising his aerodynamic and leadership experience to get on top of their recurring reliability issues before adding performance to shut the gap to the midfield pack. That is not the work of a moment, of course, but getting in early and having the second half of the season to get processes in place and trial new approaches is a great opportunity.
The 2026 Formula 1 World Championship standings capture the state of play recorded After Round 11, Hungarian Grand Prix. Kimi Antonelli leads the drivers classification on 219 points, 50 clear of Lewis Hamilton on 169, with George Russell third on 160. A lead of 50 points is a meaningful cushion at this stage of the year, but with 12 rounds still to run it is not yet a decisive one. The championship will be settled by how the front runners negotiate the rounds that remain, not by the margin they carry into them.
Behind the leading group the field is tightly compressed. Charles Leclerc holds fourth on 138, Lando Norris is fifth on 128, and Max Verstappen completes the top six on 109. The spread across those three positions is just 29 points, which means a single strong weekend can reshape the order behind the title contenders. The midfield battle is where the championship depth is most visible, and where the cost of one bad round is highest.
In the teams classification, Mercedes leads on 468 points from Ferrari on 346 and McLaren on 287. The teams standings are often the more reliable indicator of outright pace, because they smooth out the individual bad weekends that every driver encounters across a full season. A team that places both its entries consistently in the points will accumulate constructors score at a rate that single car brilliance cannot match.
The depth of the teams championship reflects how competitive the Formula 1 grid has become. Mercedes holds the lead on 468 points, but the gap to Ferrari on 346 is still the clearest constructors story of the season. Behind them, McLaren sits third on 287, with Red Bull Racing fourth on 204. The constructors race is a long game, and it rewards reliability over heroics.
The recent rounds have done most to shape the current standings. British Grand Prix at Silverstone was won by Leclerc, Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps went the way of Antonelli, and the most recent completed round, Hungarian Grand Prix at Budapest, was won by Norris. Each of those results shifted the points arithmetic at the top and reset the momentum that the title contenders carry into the next weekend.
The form guide across the recent rounds reads as a study in momentum. Norris took the most recent victory at Budapest, Antonelli won at Spa Francorchamps before that, and Leclerc prevailed at Silverstone. No single driver has dominated the recent sequence, which is why the points lead at the top has remained stable rather than stretching. The closing rounds will decide whether that pattern holds or one contender finally strings together the run of results that settles the title.
The next round is Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, scheduled for 21, 23 Aug. It is round 12 of the season and the first of the closing stretch. How the championship leader handles the specific technical demands of Zandvoort will indicate whether the current margin is a foundation to build on or a high water mark that the chasing group can erode. Every remaining weekend now carries championship weight.