Meet Cadillac's new F1 boss once dubbed the 'Polish Adrian Newey'

The Polish engineer has replaced Graeme Lowdon at F1’s newest team amid a pointless start to the season.

Lowdon was tasked with building the team from scratch, a rare occurrence in F1 and a completely different project to a constructor like Audi taking over from Sauber.

Cadillac were widely applauded for their start to the season, but with a best finish of 13th through Sergio Perez in Round 2 in China, it’s time for the next phase.

Budkowski has been tasked with that, and despite being 12 years younger than his predecessor, he actually started in F1 far earlier, back in 2001.

The 49-year-old studied aeronautics, aerodynamics and fluid dynamics in France as a student, staying in the country upon graduation with Alain Prost’s eponymous Prost Grand Prix.

Budkowski spent just short of a year with the team before moving over to Italy with Ferrari in various aerodynamic roles from 2002 to 2007.

Next up was a switch over to McLaren in England for a similarly lengthy tenure, almost seven years, starting with his first time working in the F1 paddock.

The Warsaw native was a trackside aerodynamicist for Lewis Hamilton’s first title with the team in 2008, and later moved up through to roles as deputy chief aerodynamicist and then head of aerodynamics when he departed the team in 2014.

Making his way up such a prestigious career ladder was no mean feat, however, and caused plenty of headlines back home.

In 2012, when a new radical front wing appeared on Hamilton’s McLaren, one Italian journalist from Omnicorse called him ‘The Polish Adrian Newey’ - high praise to say the least.

Experienced F1 journalist Joe Saward added: “Budkowski is one of the best qualified engineers in F1, having won a place at the celebrated École Polytechnique, France’s top engineering school, after moving there from Poland.

Upon leaving McLaren, Budkowski spent three years at the sport’s governing body, the FIA, before his most public roles with Renault and later Alpine.

Starting off at Renault in 2018, he became team principal at Alpine in 2021, but lasted a year amid the team’s heavy turnover in the position.

It was Budkowski’s most high-profile role in F1, though, and the one that best qualifies him for the same position at Cadillac.

However, his hire by Renault as executive director in 2018 did come with controversy as he’d previously worked on car compliance at the FIA.

One of those who complained was former Red Bull CEO and team principal Christian Horner, who said: "It's not a great situation. Marcin is a very capable guy in a privileged position in the FIA.

Since leaving Alpine, the Pole has been a regular in the paddock for the past four years, working in punditry with his home country’s F1 broadcasters Viaplay and Eleven Sports.