“必须有所改变”——布德科夫斯基执掌凯迪拉克F1面临的课题
凯迪拉克F1车队赛季中期出人意料地更换车队负责人，新任领队马钦·布德科夫斯基需要纠正新车队的缺陷并加快进步速度。
“有些东西必须改变”——Marcin Budkowski 必须在 凯迪拉克 F1 解决的问题
在 凯迪拉克 震惊性地替换掉创始领队 Graeme Lowdon 之后，即将上任的 Marcin Budkowski 面临着一份长长的待办清单
随着 凯迪拉克 F1 车队在赛季中期出人意料地更换领队，即将上任的主管 Marcin Budkowski 肩负着纠正这支新车队缺陷并加快其进步速度的重任。
在创始领队 Graeme Lowdon 的带领下，凯迪拉克 在艰难的条件下组建一支初创 F1 车队的工作做得相当出色——直到 2026 赛季揭幕战开幕前不到一年，他们才正式获得加入发车区的批准。
这支由TWG Motorsports所有的F1车队，由CEO Dan Towriss领导，已发展成一支在银石和通用汽车位于北卡罗来纳州的现有设施中共有400名员工的队伍，同时仍在印第安纳波利斯附近建设新的美国总部。
凯迪拉克在成为F1第11支车队的过程中赶上了每一个截止日期，但随后的进展缓慢以及生产质量和赛车组装方面反复出现的问题，开始让车手Valtteri Bottas和Sergio Perez感到沮丧，后者在比利时站表示，他原以为车队会比现在走得更远。而那还是在车队针对反复出现的刹车问题所提出的解决方案在匈牙利再次化为乌有之前。
凯迪拉克的初创期问题对于一支全新车队来说是可以预料的，但显然车队的所有方也同样缺乏耐心。在夏休期间，CEO Towriss决定做出重大调整，用Budkowski取代Lowdon。这位49岁的波兰工程师在过去25年里曾为法拉利、迈凯伦、雷诺和国际汽联（FIA）等机构工作，履历丰厚。
凯迪拉克内部早已普遍认为车队的部分运作需要重组和完善，但用Budkowski替换Lowdon、在最顶层做出变动却出人意料。这位前马诺车队的人在宣布换帅的当天早上才被告知自己将被替换。不过据悉，凯迪拉克对Lowdon在这一震惊决定之后所表现出的配合表示感激，并且明确承认，如果没有他，车队根本不可能登上发车格。
不过，尽管博塔斯同意车队内部"必须有所改变"，他没有预料到洛登会成为付出代价的那个人。这位芬兰人承认，在得知把他引入凯迪拉克阵营的那位人士被解雇的消息后自己仍在消化，因此对这一变动心情复杂。
博塔斯在赞德沃特围场表示："我认为赛季中期发生如此重大的变动，起初总是会让人感到意外。但之后丹向我解释了这次变动的所有原因，我对此表示尊重。
"我认为有些东西确实需要改变。我们遇到的一些问题一直在拖延不决。但我没有完全预料到会是这么大的变动。我原本可能预期更多的是工厂那边会有动作。很显然，最终离开的是格雷姆，这真的很遗憾，因为首先他是我的朋友。但我也认为他在组建车队方面做得非常出色，所以我为此向他脱帽致敬。与此同时，我也欢迎马丁的到来。可以肯定的是，这次变动的一个原因就是希望这个职位上有一位技术背景的人。他拥有我全部的支持。"
佩雷斯也和博塔斯一起向洛登致敬，但他表示希望布德科夫斯基能够迅速进入状态。"我认为格雷姆与通用汽车和丹一起，为凯迪拉克走到今天做出了巨大的贡献。他是车队历史的一部分，我祝愿他接下来一切顺利。
"我认为拥有一个新领导并看到他的新视角是非常令人兴奋的事。我和他相处的时间还不算多，但我认为是时候做出改变了，而且我认为这表明，尽管这只是我们的第一年，凯迪拉克真的愿意尽快推动这支车队向前发展。我们希望在新领导的带领下，这一切能很快实现。"
在车队成立仅六个月时就更换领队，这表明Towriss在推动凯迪拉克进步方面不缺果断，需要扣动哪个扳机他就会扣动。但考虑到现行规则的复杂性以及确定2027年赛车项目的时间紧迫，Budkowski也没有多少时间可以慢慢熟悉环境。他上任的第一天还恰逢另一项重大转变——凯迪拉克于当天搬入了位于银石的新设施。
"工厂太棒了。这是一处新设施，实际上周一刚投入使用，正好是我上班的第一天。所以这挺好的，因为第一天找不到自己办公桌的不止我一个人," Budkowski打趣道。"相比车队此前一直使用的临时建筑——银石赛道围场里的一个临时结构——这绝对是一个巨大的提升。"
Marcin Budkowski，凯迪拉克F1车队领队
布德科夫斯基承认，他还需要几周时间才能全面了解车队的运作方式。不过，尽管他很赞赏前任为让凯迪拉克以体面的姿态登上发车区所做的出色工作，但他已经发现了一些自己想要解决的关键结构性弱点。
他说：“我开始看到一些我们在接下来几周里需要重点发力、优先处理的事情。在他们可用的时间里，他们不得不走一些捷径，其中一些已经让我们有点吃苦头了。这些人是在打仗，战时做出的决定和和平时期做出的决定是不一样的。
如果他们有三年的时间而不是一年来完成这件事，在某些方面他们会做得更好。但这不是批评，因为在他们所拥有的时间内所做到的，我认为没有多少人能够做到。
布德科夫斯基相信凯迪拉克能够在2027年做出重大的方向纠正，不过他仍然希望一些短期调整能够改善车队今年的境况，因为阿斯顿·马丁近来的进步已将凯迪拉克挤到了发车排位的最后一排。
刹车冷却问题是其中一个非常公开可见的短期优先事项。Budkowski 指出："是的，确实存在一些可靠性问题，也许没有达到你对一支一级方程式车队的期望水平，但在某些领域存在巨大的复杂性，刹车领域就是其中之一。"
"在设计和材料方面已经出现了一些错误，这些问题将会得到解决。这是一连串不幸的事件，因为故障并非源自单一的原因，而是一系列不同问题的连锁反应。就是那种你修好一样东西，结果别的东西又出问题，而且你是在做的过程中不断学习的情形。"
Budkowski 解释说："让我印象深刻的一件事是，办公室里有很多年轻而非常聪明的人。他们极具天赋、干劲十足，但他们缺乏许多车队所拥有的经验和深厚积累。" "车队会积累集体知识，有时我们称之为赛车的 DNA，那是一群人多年来打造赛车的历史。"
"这支队伍完全没有这种积累，所以这款车实际上就是一个原型。这群人现在有了共同打造一款赛车的经验，这肯定会对明年有所帮助。所以我们学到了很多教训。其中一些我们今年还能稍微弥补一下，而大部分则要等到明年的赛车了。"
由于重大改动必须等到2027年，博塔斯希望车队能够至少先摘取一些比较容易实现的成果，解决最令人头疼的缺陷。他说：“在质量方面，在调校的精准度、部件（比如扩散器、翼片、车身覆盖件）的质量和精准度方面，我们仍然有相当多的圈速可以争取。如果我们在这些方面能获得更多的一致性，那可是相当可观的圈速。”
“我们需要让赛车的品质达到顶尖水准，让它看起来像一辆由顶级F1车队运营的F1赛车。我现在的看法是，无论我们做什么，都不想牺牲2027年的任何性能，因为那需要借助一辆全新赛车实现一次更大的飞跃。”
英文原文
“Something needed to change” – What Marcin Budkowski must fix at Cadillac F1
Following Cadillac's shock replacement of founding team principal Graeme Lowdon, incoming Marcin Budkowski faces an extensive to-do list
With Cadillac F1 Team pulling the trigger on a surprising mid-season team boss change, incoming chief Marcin Budkowski is tasked with rectifying the new team's flaws and speeding up its rate of progress.
Under founding team principal Graeme Lowdon, Cadillac did an admirable job assembling a start-up F1 team under difficult circumstances, only officially receiving approval to join the grid less than one year before the 2026 season opener.
The TWG Motorsports-owned F1 team, helmed by CEO Dan Towriss, grew into a 400-strong operation across Silverstone and existing GM facilities in North Carolina, while still building a new US headquarters near Indianapolis.
Cadillac met every deadline on its way to becoming F1's 11th team, but a subsequent lack of progress and recurring problems with the team's production quality and car build started causing frustration among its drivers Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, with the latter suggesting in Belgium he expected the team to be further ahead than it was. That was before the team's solution to recurring brake problems went up in smoke again in Hungary.
Cadillac's teething issues were to be expected from a brand-new team, but apparently that impatience was also shared with the team's ownership. During the summer break CEO Towriss decided to make a drastic change by replacing Lowdon with Budkowski, the 49-year-old Polish engineer with an extensive pedigree working for the likes of Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and the FIA over the past 25 years.
There had already been a widespread belief within Cadillac that parts of the operation needed restructuring and refinement, but making a change at the very top by swapping Lowdon for Budkowski came out of the blue. The former Manor man was only informed on the morning of the announcement of his replacement. But Cadillac is understood to be appreciative of Lowdon's cooperation following the shock decision, and there is a clear acknowledgment the team would never have made it onto the grid without him.
But while Bottas agreed "something had to change" within the squad, he wasn't expecting Lowdon to be the one paying the price. The Finn admitted to having mixed feelings over the move as he was still digesting the sacking of the man who brought him into the Cadillac fold.
"I think a big change like this in the middle of the season is always initially surprising," Bottas said in the Zandvoort paddock. "But then Dan explained to me all the reasons why this change and I respect that.
"I think something needed to change. Some of the issues we've had were just dragging along. But I didn't quite expect such a big change. I was maybe expecting more stuff happening at the factory. Obviously, it's a real shame that it is Graeme who got out because, first of all, he's a friend of mine. But I also think he's done a great job setting up the team, so my hat off for that. But at the same time, I'm also welcoming Martin. For sure one reason for the change was to have a technical person in this position. He's got all my support."
Perez joined Bottas in paying tribute to Lowdon, but said he was keen for Budkowski to hit the ground running. "I think Graeme has done a tremendous part in bringing Cadillac to where it is now, together with GM and Dan. He's part of the history of the team and I wish him well on whatever comes next.
"I think it's really exciting when you have a new leader and see his new perspective. I haven't been spending much time with him, but I think it was time to change and I think it shows that, although it's only our first year, Cadillac is really willing to move forward with this team as quickly as possible. And we hope that with the new leadership that can come soon."
Changing team bosses six months into the squad's existence suggests there's no lack of decisiveness on Towriss' part to be pulling whichever trigger needed to drive Cadillac's progress forward. But given the complexity of the current ruleset and the cramped timelines involved in defining the 2027 car project, Budkowski isn't granted a particularly long time to get his feet under the desk either. His arrival also coincided with another major transition, as Cadillac moved into its new Silverstone facility on his first day in the job.
"The factory is amazing. It's a new facility that just came online actually on Monday, the first day that I started. So it was nice because I wasn't the only one who couldn't find his desk on day one," Budkowski quipped. "It's definitely a step up from what the team had been operating until then, which was a provisional structure on the Silverstone circuit enclosure."
Marcin Budkowski, Team Principal of Cadillac F1 Team
Budkowski acknowledged it would take him several more weeks to get the "full picture" of how the team operates. However, while appreciating the "cracking job" his predecessor had done to get Cadillac on the grid in respectable fashion, he had already identified some key structural weaknesses that he wanted to address.
"I'm starting to see some of the things that we're going to need to hit hard and prioritise in the next few weeks," he said. "In the time they had available, they had to take some shortcuts, and some of them were biting us a little bit. These guys have gone to war, and the decisions you make in wartime are different to the decisions you make in peacetime.
"If they had three years instead of one to do it, in some areas they would have done it better. But it's not a criticism, because what they've done in the time they had, I don't think there's a lot of people who could have done that."
Budkowski was confident Cadillac could make a significant course correction for 2027, though he was still hopeful some of the short-term changes could improve the squad's fortunes this year as Aston Martin's recent progress has pushed Cadillac down to the last row of the starting grid.
The brake cooling issue is one, very publicly visible, short-term priority. "Yes, there are reliability issues that maybe are not at the level you expect from a Formula 1 team, but there's a huge complexity in some areas and the brake area is one of them," Budkowski pointed out.
"There have been some mistakes made in terms of design and materials that will be addressed. It's an unlucky chain of events, because there's not a single source of failure. There's a cascade of different things. It's one of these situations when you fix one thing and something else goes wrong and you learn as you do it.
"One thing that struck me is there's a lot of young, very bright people in the office. Super talented, super motivated, but they don't have the experience and the strength in depth that a lot of teams have," Budkowski explained. "Teams build collective knowledge, sometimes we refer to it as the DNA of the car, and it's the history of a group of people building cars for years.
"There's none of that in this group, so this car has been really the prototype. This group of people now have experience of having done a car together, and that will certainly help for next year. So there's a lot of lessons learned. Some of them we can still address a little bit for this year, and most of them we'll have to wait for next year's car."
With major changes having to wait until 2027, Bottas is hopeful the team can at least target some of the lower hanging fruit by ironing out its most painful deficiencies. "We still have quite a bit of lap time on the table when it comes to quality, when it comes to precision on the setup, quality and precision on the parts, such as diffusers, wings, bodywork," he said. "If we can gain more consistency there, we're talking quite a bit of lap time.
"We need to make the car quality great, so it looks like an F1 car that is run by a top F1 team. My view now is whatever we're going to do, we don't want to sacrifice any of 2027 performance, because that needs to be a bigger jump with a new car."
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