“I was extremely lucky in my career” – Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski wants to take inspiration from his Ferrari tenure, which won a few world championships for the GOAT Michael Schumacher.
Marcin Budkowski was an engineer during the heydays of the Michael Schumacher-starred Ferrari team. The Pole then went on to work for McLaren, the FIA, and, finally at Renault, which is now Alpine.
And the Ferrari golden days are what is keeping him motivated as Alpine make their debut in F1 this season. Budkowski wants to take inspiration from the Ferrari days and channelize it for success to the French team.
“Different era. I was extremely lucky in my career. I was an engineer, I was contributing to the development of the car. Now I am much more in a management position and contributing to the performance of the organization rather than the performance of the car itself.
“But certainly, being a part of such a successful organization, one that was part of dominating the sport at the time is something that you remember. You remember some of the things that you were doing right and certainly, that is something I take inspiration from now in my management role to try to build a team as strong as the one we had at the time.”
Ferrari ‘Dream Team’ inspiration for Marcin Budkowski
The ‘Dream Team’ comprised of Jean Todt, with Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne, and Michael Schumacher. Alongside them, Budkowski also had for company Mattia Binotto and James Allison.
Binotto is the current Ferrari team principal, while Allison is the technical director at Mercedes. During Budkowski’s tenure, Ferrari won three consecutive driver-constructor championship doubles, Schumacher taking it all.
“Actually, I started at Prost Grand Prix with Alain Prost who is now a special advisor to our team.
“I was extremely lucky to be part of an era at Ferrari under Jean Todt, with Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne, and Michael Schumacher, with all these great names, some of them are still key names in the sport. Mattia Binotto was there, James Allison, the old team-mates from this period. But it was a completely different role at the time.”
