'If you hire people who only say yes, you will inevitably finish last'

Once the interview is essentially over, Lowdon still has one final remark. Cadillac's team principal points to the recording device, waits for it to be turned back on, and sums up how he wants to lead the ambitious group of people at Formula 1's newest team.

“When I'm talking to people within our team, I make it abundantly clear to them that they don't work for me, I work for them,” Lowdon says during an exclusive interview with GPblog.

As Cadillac’s team principal, Lowdon has already pulled off a small miracle. In record time, under the leadership of the Briton, who was previously at the helm of the small Virgin and Marussia teams, a Formula 1 outfit has been built from the ground up. Moreover, the team has been anything but embarrassing in its first season so far.

Lowdon, however, is not one to boast about what he has achieved. Putting things into perspective, he says: “All management's difficult at the end of the day. Managers are not paid to let the inevitable happen. We’re paid to make a difference. When it's a new team, you're literally starting from scratch. There's nothing you can rely on. There's no ways of working, there's no processes, no people, no infrastructure, no assets, no nothing. You have to do everything from scratch.”

During the conversation, Lowdon says several times that it’s 'all about the people.' He sees himself as just one cog in a much bigger machine. “My approach to management is, as a leader, you provide only three things, which is some structure so that people understand how they operate within the team. Some focus so that people understand what it is that they need to spend their time on, because we have a limited resource. And then some energy as well, because this is a really, really demanding sport and nobody else is going to provide the energy as well. So those three things I think are really important in any part of management.”

In building its staff, Cadillac has made a point of recruiting the best possible people in every area. “As a team principal I expect to be challenged by those people. There's no point just hiring people who think the same way and say ‘yes, yes’. Because all that happens is everyone has a nice time and then they realize their last,” says Lowdon.

Lowdon was highly successful as a businessman, but his background is in mechanical engineering. He holds both a bachelor's and a master's degree in the field. Still, the team principal won't tell an engineer how to do their job. “I don't tell anyone actually what to do, that's why they're hired. They're hired because they know that they're really, really good at their discipline. My job is to provide those other things.”

Lowdon explicitly avoids a ‘military approach’ in his leadership style. He opts for the ‘mission control concept’ instead. “That means you rely really heavily on the core values that you build the business on, and if people understand the mission and they're good at what they do, then everyone's heading in that right direction. I've seen significantly better results from that than just trying to tell a thousand people what to do.”

When the team was created, Cadillac first established four core values on which everything is based. The first one is ‘bold ambition.’

“That is very much a reflection of Cadillac and TWG’s ownership,” Lowdon explains. “That doesn't mean arrogance. It means, it's good to have an ambition and you can embrace that ambition. There's nothing wrong with that.”

The second value is ‘excellence in execution’, which means that whenever you do something, you strive to do it as well as possible. Then there is 'leadership and innovation.' “That again is something that's a reflection of Cadillac’s 120-odd years of innovation. And Formula 1 is a sport that really rewards innovation as well. So we try and create an environment where that leadership and innovation is seen as a good thing.

As a Formula 1 team principal, an enormous amount of pressure rests on Lowdon’s shoulders. Ultimately, everything comes down to performance, leaving little time to unwind and spend time with family. “It's true, but there are significantly worse jobs where you don't see your family. I think anyone who's in Formula 1 in one of these positions, actually their family tend to be really proud of what they're doing.

Lowdon stays mentally fresh by making sure he never gets ahead of himself. “I think it's about the proper understanding of what makes a high-performance team, and it's all about the foundations. We try and hire people based on their fit with our values, not necessarily their technical ability or achievement.

Based on personal experience, Lowdon says success depends on personal responsibility and integrity. “Everything is built on that, to get the right people and get the best people you possibly can. Get some really simple stuff and they'll fly, they'll absolutely fly. Or you can cage people in and tell them what to do. That tends not to work.”