“It takes a village,” the saying goes. Building a new racing team, let alone a new Formula 1 team, requires finding the right talent and pairing it to the right roles, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Knowing this, the Cadillac F1 Team is tasking one of the most talented free agents in today’s market with the massive responsibility of developing its future F1 car: Simon Pagenaud.
The Indy 500 winner, IndyCar series champion, and experienced endurance racer brings a wealth of experience into this role, where he’s responsible for shaping the very early stages of the F1 car’s performance. In fact, he’s already been working on this over the past year, well before the team made many headlines or confirmed Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as the official racing drivers.
Pagenaud, who is a long-time friend of The Drive, was unfortunately involved in a nasty rollover crash at Mid-Ohio during the 2023 IndyCar season. After being diagnosed with a severe concussion, the popular French driver had to step away from full-time racing and embark on a long road to recovery. It goes without saying that I am extremely happy to see him back behind the wheel, even if it’s on a digital race track for now.
“Optimizing the technical side of a car and managing relationships with the people in the factory has been my passion ever since I started racing,” said Pagenaud. “I really enjoy talking to the engineers, developing the simulator, and making it as realistic as possible. This work gives me a feeling of being useful and bringing in my expertise, something that was missing somehow since my accident.
“My role and my goal are to make the simulator as close to reality as possible and to set up the foundations of the car,” he added. “I want to help Cadillac project itself as accurately as possible towards reality.”
As has been the case for decades now, and especially during the ongoing hybrid era of F1, simulator work is vital for racing teams. This is how engineers and drivers explore new setups and components without going through the time-consuming and expensive process of developing real parts and testing them on a real track. Heck, sometimes that’s not even an option, given the tight budget caps and minimal testing allowances. Ironically, back in 2022, when I visited Honda’s multi-million-dollar simulator used for IndyCar and IMSA, it was Pagenaud who talked me through the process of developing a virtual race car.
Pagenaud’s deep expertise in team dynamics, development, setup, and, of course, pushing a car to its limits, will undoubtedly be beneficial to Cadillac, which has its work cut out ahead of its first F1 race in just five months.
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