The debate over the two biggest F1 manufacturer failures of the 21st century is a close race between Toyota and Jaguar F1. While Honda’s decision to sell its team to Ross Brawn for £1—only to watch the car they had designed and engineered win both world championships in 2009—was painful, at least their endeavors eventually led to dramatic success.
Toyota blew through an estimated $3 billion on its F1 fantasy without securing a single Grand Prix victory in eight years of competition. Yet it was Ford’s foray into F1 with its Jaguar brand that takes the biscuit as the biggest corporate blunder in motorsport history.
The Misguided Management of Jaguar
Ford bought the spirited, race-winning Stewart Grand Prix team and decided, rather than building on the success Stewart had engineered, to go in a completely different direction with its car philosophy.
What ensued was five chaotic seasons of infighting, a revolving door of management decisions, and jaw-dropping technical errors before the team was sold for $1 to Red Bull magnate Dietrich Mateschitz.
Corporate Red Tape and F1 Inexperience
Ford’s fatal model was attempting to run a fast-paced, highly entrepreneurial racing team through layers of corporate decision-making that paralyzed the Jaguar F1 team. Many of the smallest decisions had to be signed off at corporate HQ in Michigan, and the Ford executives running the show knew nothing about racing, let alone Formula One.
This utter lack of F1 experience was evidenced in one alleged exchange involving Ford executive Richard Parry-Jones. He famously questioned why the team was paying millions to an Italian driver named “Edmund Irvine,” unaware that Eddie Irvine was their primary driver and the runner-up in the previous season’s Drivers’ Championship.
Political Coups and Internal Civil War
In 2000, Jackie Stewart was forced to step down as team boss shortly after Ford completed the acquisition. Legendary American racing icon Bobby Rahal later took the reins alongside key management personnel.
Yet in 2002, Niki Lauda ousted Bobby Rahal in a bitter political coup, only for Lauda himself to be fired by Ford executives at the end of 2002. A management committee then took over all decision-making, stripping the team of strong central leadership.
Ford appointed its Cosworth engine business to build the V10 power unit for its cars, but the relationship quickly turned toxic. In 2000 and 2001, the Cosworth V10 engine suffered catastrophic oil and pneumatic failures, leading to double-DNFs in multiple races. Instead of collaborating, the engine and chassis engineers launched a civil war, blaming each other for the car’s lack of pace and cooling issues.
The Red Bull Contrast
When Red Bull billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz acquired the ill-fated Milton Keynes-based squad from Ford, things were done very differently. While Mateschitz always acted as the final arbiter in any disputes, Christian Horner was given free rein to run the team as a benevolent leader—a structure perfectly suited to a fast-paced, entrepreneurial outfit.
Trouble Brewing at Cadillac?
A Sudden Leadership Shakeup
This is just a summary of the issues Jaguar faced, and for some observers, Cadillac could well travel the same failed route.
Cadillac recently sacked its team principal, Graham Lowden, and appointed his successor, Marcin Budkowski, who has previous experience with race-winning outfits like Alpine (most recently), Ferrari, and McLaren. On paper, his CV looks stronger than Lowden’s—whose credentials for the job were questioned at the time of his original appointment. While Lowden had led an F1 startup before, the Virgin team from 2010 morphed into Marussia and ultimately ended up as another of F1’s many failed projects.
Questions Surrounding Lowden’s Exit
So, whoever made the decision to appoint Lowden in the first place faces serious question marks, and the timing of his sacking appears strange as well. It transpires this was no planned succession event, despite some F1 writers claiming otherwise. Lowden was told on a Thursday morning that he was being relieved of his duties and appears to no longer hold any role within the Cadillac F1 organization.
Aston Martin has also cycled through a number of team bosses in recent years, but figures like Mike Krack and Andy Cowell, when asked to step down, were redeployed elsewhere within the organization. By contrast, the tone of Cadillac’s announcement was unusually curt, as CEO Dan Towriss chose to focus on missing qualities in Lowden’s leadership skillset, speaking of wanting a “very strong technical team principal” who can set “a winning mindset across the organization.”
Friction Behind the Scenes
Clearly, Towriss believes Lowden did not possess these qualities. So why appoint him in the first place? Budkowski has yet to visit the factory, which hardly suggests a smooth transition and points to trouble behind the scenes regarding how Cadillac and Towriss view the direction the team should be taking.
Corporate Mandates vs. F1 Reality
The American Relocation Ultimatum
Murmurs emerged prior to the summer break that there was unrest behind the scenes at the American-owned F1 team. F1 photographer Kym Illman noted:
“If you look at their performance on the track today… they’re not doing well. It’s not a good look for Cadillac. How will the sponsors take that?”
Other reports suggested Cadillac was issuing its UK-based employees an ultimatum: relocate to the team’s Indiana base stateside or find other employment. Cadillac has not responded to these reports.
The Reality of F1’s “Motorsport Valley”
While Cadillac has not commented on reports that it wishes its operational base to be consolidated in the USA, if true, this reflects the views of corporate executives who know little about the realities of F1. Almost 90% of all F1 personnel are based in the UK’s “Motorsport Valley,” and even the iconic Ferrari has historically struggled to entice top talent away from their UK homes.
After taking over as Ferrari team principal, Fred Vasseur outlined how difficult it was even for the Scuderia to lure engineers away from Britain:
“It’s not the same situation—you can move from Red Bull to Mercedes, keep the same hours, keep children in the same school, and from Friday to Monday you can change and everything is perfect. If you want to come to Italy, it’s a different approach. You have to change the family environment and so on.”
Slipping Down a Familiar Slope
The corporate insistence that key personnel must relocate to the USA reflects a dangerous misunderstanding of how F1 talent operates. The friction behind the scenes leading to Lowden’s dismissal may well be tied to these structural disagreements.
Something is not quite right at Cadillac, and the appointment of Budkowski feels somewhat reactive. While he fits the recent trend of appointing leaders with an engineering background, his top-level leadership skills under corporate pressure remain to be fully tested.
Will Cadillac realize in a few months’ time that another change is needed? It feels uncomfortably close to the slippery slope Ford traveled with Jaguar. Stability in an F1 team is crucial to get everyone pulling in the same direction.
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The Judge, a nom de plume of an experienced F1 journalist and site founder with long-standing sources across the paddock. With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
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I think the reasons leading up to Red Bull buying the team for $1 are surely now being revisited in the post Horner era? Maybe CH should wait for the $1 sell-off, once MV moves on (for whatever reason)?
KARMA
Americans are rarely at the forefront of racing startups.