Christoffer Lindén

Marcin Budkowski (Cadillac) talks to Sky Sports F1 (UK) after Free Practice 1 #MexicoCityGP ____________________________________ Natalie Pinkham: Let's start with this session. And Colton Herta has done the crucial golden number of laps, and he's got his super licence now. So that's great. How do you feel about his session, and his progress generally? Marcin Budkowski: It's good. He did a really good session for us in Austin. It was more like a work session, you know, FP1 always there's a programme, there's a lot of preparation. In Austin,we tested actually some experimental parts for next year. He had some rakes on the car. Here it's a challenging track. We know for cooling for brake cooling, for engine cooling. So run a slightly atypical programme in FP1to get all the information, you know, it's challenging for everybody here in the pit lane. It's our first race here. We have no data from the previous years as a team, you know, we're working blind compared to everybody else. So, it's even more important to to collect this data for us this morning, and yeah, he's done. He's done that. So he's done a really good job. Bernie Collins: So, you've been with the team for a little while now, and how is that development going? Like you say collected data all the time, learning a lot. But, you know, you have struggled with cooling or braking as it might be. This is a challenging track for all of that. So how do you see that development and I guess particularly reliability. Improving within the team. Marcin Budkowski: Yeah, so I think that the major issue we had was with the brakes. I mean, we had a number of issues, every team has reliability issues, you know, that new set of regulations, new car, obviously more opportunities to get things wrong. We struggled a lot with the brakes. It was a multi-area problem, every time we're solving a problem. Another one was appearing. We got that under control, and especially for Baku we brought a new front brake duct system,and kept that on control. There's still some circuits where we need to do some management. But we've made a lot of progress as well since. It’sthat kind of procedures, the management. Starting it early enough. The communication between the factory, the engineering team, the pit wall. And, so we have this very complex process in place that allows us to intervene early enough,and that's also stuff we practice during the Free Practice, so, you know, I'm not saying. I'm not gonna jinx it. I'm not gonna say we're fine. But we have, you know, the right hardware in terms of the parts and the right process to do it. It's still going to be challenging on Sunday, and the lesson with these things is you have to start early enough. If you wait for the problem to get out of control. Then it's too late, like the fuel management all these things you have to get in control early enough. You have to convince the drivers early the race when they still want to race. So there are still opportunities that they have to do things like lift and coast, which is not very fun for them. Natalie Pinkham: So the team is constantly evolving and looking for answers, and in terms of its personnel as well. I just want to bring it back to Colton for a moment. How important is it for the team to have a US driver? Marcin Budkowski: Look, it is important. It's an American team. You know, it's a race under an American flag. I think we're building; you've seen it in Austin. We're building a strong American identity as well. It's great to have an American driver. It increases the hype. But it's also a question of timing, the right driver when the team is ready for it, you know. And so well, we're assessing this, but, you know, the objective here this season was to have, you know, Colton as part of the team. He's doing some simulator development for us. He's done five FP1 [sessions]now. One more than expected because in Monza, unfortunately, we had an issue on his car that prevented it to do any meaningful running in Monza. We might do more FP1’s with him to give him more experience. I think it's part of the process really. Natalie Pinkham: The process is not going on. So clearly a decision hasn't been made yet, but we do know that Sergio Perez has got a contract extension. Do you think Colton is ready to step in? Do you believe what you've got feeling? Do you think he will be your second driver next season? Budkowski: Look, it's Checo’sweekend. The reality is Checo has been really strong this year on track, off-track. He's pushing us very hard. He's driving really well. He's pushing us very hard, you know, here at the track and at the factory. He's giving a lot of feedback. He's been he's been winning races. He's been part of winning organisations and in his force in the team. But he's won his extension on a track. He's been overall the quicker and the better driver this year, and there was an opportunity, though. What are the chances that he would complete his 300 races on our first season as the Cadillac F1 Team here in Mexico, and we did this mega show run. It was a great opportunity to announce this extension/ I think it was just an opportunity because it was the right the right time, the right place for the second seat and for future driver strategy. We are in no rush to either announce it, or even decided. Pinkham: Okay. So, what does Valtteri have to do to stay? Let's flip it. Budkowski: Look, I think he's done a really good race in in Austin. He was strong in qualifying. He was strong in the race. That's what he needs to do race in, race out. We've seen that on the weekends where he was on it. He was on pace with Checo some times even a bit quicker, a bit there or there about in qualifying, and very, very close to the race. We need more of that. Bernie Collins: I was just gonna ask the difference between the two drivers in qualifying doesn't look that big. But the difference comes in race pace. I think between your two current drivers. Is there anything you're understanding in how those drivers drive the car? But in how they drive the car, you know, where is Valtteri lacking, or what do you think of the difficulties he has with this car your car that means he's not showing that pace that we would expect from someone of Valtteri Bottas’ experience. Marcin Budkowski: No, it's a very good question. It's effectively the question we are we asking ourselves collectively with Valtteri and with the engineering team. Because, you know, some races we don't actually see a reason for it in the data. Valtteri doesn't see a reason for it either, in terms of there's no big issue in the car. But, you know, his arace driver,his an experienced race driver. He knows what he can extract from race car and what he can't, and he just says, I can't extract more pace. From this car, but let's face it. We're a new team. We have this car, you know, it's not a perfect car. It's a car that's been put together in very short period of time, by a team of people who never worked together before, and from a white sheet of paper. We have to accept that we're not giving these guys the best possible equipment, and we don't have as a team, enough strength and depth to have full certainty that the equipment we have is is is perfect. It is also we're looking at it together, you know, from the team side and from the driver side. And that's why also we're taking the time to try to understand exactly what's going on. Natalie Pinkham: And from your perspective. How are you enjoying the role? Marcin Budkowski: I'm enjoying it. It's been intense to be honest. No, it's been very intense, you know, coming to a team and having to absorb, and observe and understand, you know, the limitations, but also like with a very intense travelling schedule we're having now. You know, I'm missing time at a factory to get things moving there. I'm gonna spend a few days there after Brazil start to implement some changes as well in the in the organisation because there's some priorities that need addressing. We've already made a few change in some areas that we're gonnastart doing this. But we also at the moment, you know, in full preparation for next year. So there's a lot a lot going on, but I see the team, you know, working well together. I see that operationally at every race. We're doing a better job. I think in Austin, intheedebrief I said to the team that it's the first time I felt we worked actually as a Formula One race team. It was controlled. We were ready for every session. We were like everything was working as it should work, and it's great because it wasn't the case a few races ago when I joined, and so it's good to see this progress. We can't evolve the car now because we have all our resources or next year's car. Logically to find performance for next year, but we can improve the way we we operate. And we have to operate like a like a winning team even if we don't have a winning car. So, whenwe have the car that's able to score points. We're actually able to to convert that into points andinto results at the track. Natalie Pinkham: So, very quickly those changes are they in the hierarchy of the team? Marcin Budkowski: Sorry? Say again. Pinkham: The changes they're gonna be to the hierarchy of the team? Budkowski: Well. Do you really think I'm gonna communicate organisation changes to you before I communicate them to my my people? No, of course not.