Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas Share First Take on Cadillac F1 Chief as Reliability Issues Mount

The Cadillac F1 team made a significant change mid-season in the 2026 Formula One campaign by signing a new team principal, Marcin Budkowski, who replaced Graeme Lowdon. The recent Dutch Grand Prix marked the first race under Budkowski’s leadership, and both drivers, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, have shared their first impressions of the new chief.

The American outfit announced the team principal change during the summer break amid a turbulent debut season, as the team has experienced reliability issues, with Bottas and Perez suffering abrupt retirements in multiple races thus far.

Budkowski has had a long career in the premier class of motorsport, starting with Prost Grand Prix in 2001, before moving to Ferrari for six years. He then joined McLaren in 2007 before moving to F1’s governing body, the FIA, as a deputy race director. The 49-year-old’s last role was that of executive director at Alpine until 2022. After that, he worked as a pundit in Poland.

Image Credit: Cadillac F1 Team | Marcin Budkowski

The race at Zandvoort saw Perez finish in P15, while Bottas had to retire with just ten laps remaining due to a hydraulic issue on the MAC-26 F1 car that prevented the rear wing from closing properly, leading to a DNF. After the Grand Prix, both drivers opened up about their first week with Budkowski. Perez said:

“I think Marcin has already put his input. I think we could all see that he is a great leader. He is working flat out from what I can see, and I think he is very soon going to start to put all his input into the project. So, I think I’m very happy with how he’s leading the team.”

“It’s been good. It’s been obviously very busy, trying to know hundreds of people, trying to learn how the team operates, how the team works, what are the weaknesses, but yeah, so far so good.”

Budkowski told the media in a separate interview that fixing reliability issues on the cars was a priority. Speaking about the issue, Bottas said:

“Yeah, I know. It’s tough, but we got to go through these issues, we got to fix them. And in the end, everything is new for us. It’s a new team, so yeah, it’s another issue that we haven’t really struggled that much before, and now it seems to be hurting us. But I’m sure we can solve it. We have two weeks before Monza.”

Cadillac F1 Car | Photo Credit: Cadillac F1 Team