Simon Pagenaud has been a busy man for the previous 12 months.
As RACER revealed in May, the 2016 IndyCar Collection champion and 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner was employed by Basic Motors to play a serious position within the improvement of its Staff Chevy IndyCar Collection program by way of frequent visits to its Charlotte Technical Heart with numerous hours spent on its driver-in-the-loop simulator.
What wasn’t shared at the moment was the complete extent of Pagenaud’s contributions. The Frenchman was puling double responsibility as he labored with Staff Chevy’s IndyCar engineers to refine chassis and engine tuning for the upcoming season, and switching forwards and backwards with GM’s Cadillac F1 simulator program the place he clocked extra hours serving to the model to develop its new Formulation 1 challenger for debut in 2026. Lengthy earlier than the TWG Motorsports-led F1 program signed Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez to function Cadillac F1’s race drivers, Pagenaud was locked away with the undertaking’s chassis and engine designers and all method of racing engineers to pattern lots of of digital parts and setups on the DIL, which had been used to form the ultimate configuration of the automobile and powertrain that Bottas and Perez will quickly get to pattern in the actual world.
Pagenaud has performed a central position in serving to convey Cadillac’s first F1 automobile to life. Picture courtesy of Simon Pagenaud
“Optimizing the technical facet of a automobile and managing relationships with the folks within the manufacturing facility has been my ardour ever since I began racing,” Pagenaud mentioned. “I actually get pleasure from speaking to the engineers, growing the simulator, and making it as practical as potential. This work offers me a sense of being helpful and bringing in my experience, one thing that was lacking in some way since my accident.”
The 41-year-old hasn’t raced because the summer season of 2023, when a brake element failure pitched his Meyer Shank Racing IndyCar right into a violent barrel roll that left him with a long-lasting signs stemming from the whipping results suffered by his mind.
Pagenaud hasn’t returned to competitors within the two-plus years because the crash, however spending time on the DIL simulator has confirmed to be each therapeutic for him and extremely useful for GM. Famend for his engineering information and detailed chassis and engine suggestions, Pagenaud has repurposed the skills that made him a top-tier menace in Champ Automotive, IndyCar, and endurance sports activities automobile racing right into a coveted improvement useful resource for Chevrolet and Cadillac.
“My position and my purpose are to make the simulator as near actuality as potential and to arrange the foundations of the automobile,” he mentioned. “I wish to assist Cadillac undertaking itself as precisely as potential in direction of actuality.”
Cadillac F1 workforce principal Graeme Lowdon expressed his appreciation for all that Pagenaud has dropped at this system’s ramping-up course of.
“Our work within the simulator in Charlotte is extraordinarily necessary to constructing the workforce,” Lowdon mentioned. “It’s important on so many ranges: consolidating our base efficiency and aero set-ups, enabling us to be race prepared over a Grand Prix weekend, checking methods and protocols, but in addition establishing clear and efficient communication channels between our bases within the US, the UK and – finally – trackside. Simon has introduced expertise and vitality to the method and has helped us vastly.”
