Buxton insists Cadillac 'wouldn't be on the grid' without ousted team principal Lowdon

Former Formula 1 broadcaster Will Buxton has defended Graeme Lowdon in the wake of his surprise mid-season removal as Cadillac team principal, saying the American team owes its place on the grid entirely to the work Lowdon did to build it from nothing.

Cadillac announced during the summer break that Lowdon — who had guided the team through its first 11 races of a debut campaign — would be replaced by Marcin Budkowski, the former Renault executive director and FIA technical chief. Cadillac CEO Dan Towriss confirmed the decision was not mutual and that Lowdon had only been informed on the morning of the announcement.

Speaking on the Up To Speed podcast alongside former driver David Coulthard and analyst Naomi Schiff, Buxton drew on Lowdon’s earlier experience at Manor/Marussia to explain why he was the right person for the construction phase — and why the transition was always likely.

“He knew what it took to build up a team from nothing. And he did that fantastically,” Buxton said. “I think it’s safe to say Cadillac wouldn’t be on the grid without Graeme, without his experience and without the work that he did to build that team up, to put the people in place and get them on the grid.”

Buxton also noted that Lowdon himself had previously acknowledged the limits of his own role. “He himself admitted not long ago that he believed he had quite a narrow window of expertise,” Buxton said. “There was certainly a realisation there on his part that he probably wasn’t going to be the long-term option.”

On the blunt nature of the handover, Buxton was pragmatic. “It’s not that Graeme was doing a bad job, but they needed somebody now to take this on and move it to the next stage. The earlier you can get somebody in, the better it is for all involved because you then have a greater influence on what’s coming down the line in 2027, 2028 and so on. There perhaps isn’t any place for niceties in that regard when you want to be as competitive as possible.”