Surer backs Cadillac’s Budkowski switch

Marc Surer believes Cadillac’s mid-season management change makes sense after persistent technical problems exposed weaknesses inside Formula 1’s newest team.

Cadillac recently replaced Graeme Lowdon with Marcin Budkowski after a difficult first half of the season for Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.

Speaking to Speed Week, former F1 driver Surer said the team needed someone with a stronger engineering background at the top.

"For me, the change is because they needed someone to keep an eye on the engineers," he said.

"They kept having the same problems, struggling with smoking and locked brakes and broken suspensions. It wasn’t a one-off occurrence, but a problem that developed over a longer period."

"At some point, you have to ask yourself, what’s wrong with the engineers? Or is there a lack of a leader to solve the problem?"

Surer believes Budkowski is well suited to that task.

"Budkowski is an engineer, and they probably trust him to stand up for himself and scrutinise the engineers’ work more closely."

"That’s why the change happened mid-season, which is rather unusual."

He also stressed that Cadillac’s problems are hardly surprising for a completely new operation.

"I remember Pat Symonds saying at the season opener in Melbourne that they’d never had two cars on the track at the same time," said Surer.

"The logistics are incredibly complex."

Surer said better communication between the circuit and factory is therefore crucial.

"Having an engineer at the head of the race team is obviously very helpful in this regard. It all makes perfect sense."