Simon Pagenaud has been a busy man for the past year.
As RACER revealed in May, the 2016 IndyCar Series champion and 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner was hired by General Motors to play a major role in the development of its Team Chevy IndyCar Series program through frequent visits to its Charlotte Technical Center with countless hours spent on its driver-in-the-loop simulator.
What wasn’t shared at that time was the full extent of Pagenaud’s contributions. The Frenchman was puling double duty as he worked with Team Chevy’s IndyCar engineers to refine chassis and engine tuning for the upcoming season, and switching back and forth with GM’s Cadillac F1 simulator program where he clocked more hours helping the brand to develop its new Formula 1 challenger for debut in 2026. Long before the TWG Motorsports-led F1 program signed Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez to serve as Cadillac F1’s race drivers, Pagenaud was locked away with the project’s chassis and engine designers and all manner of racing engineers to sample hundreds of virtual components and setups on the DIL, which were used to shape the final configuration of the car and powertrain that Bottas and Perez will soon get to sample in the real world.
Pagenaud has played a central role in helping bring Cadillac’s first F1 car to life. Photo courtesy of Simon Pagenaud
“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,” Pagenaud said. “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.”
The 41-year-old hasn’t raced since the summer of 2023, when a brake component failure pitched his Meyer Shank Racing IndyCar into a violent barrel roll that left him with a long-lasting symptoms stemming from the whipping effects suffered by his brain.
Pagenaud hasn’t returned to competition in the two-plus years since the crash, but spending time on the DIL simulator has proven to be both therapeutic for him and highly beneficial for GM. Renowned for his engineering knowledge and detailed chassis and engine feedback, Pagenaud has repurposed the talents that made him a top-tier threat in Champ Car, IndyCar, and endurance sports car racing into a coveted development resource for Chevrolet and Cadillac.
“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 said. “I want to help Cadillac project itself as accurately as possible towards reality.”
Cadillac F1 team principal Graeme Lowdon expressed his appreciation for all that Pagenaud has brought to the program’s ramping-up process.
“Our work in the simulator in Charlotte is extremely important to building the team,” Lowdon said. “It’s critical on so many levels: consolidating our base performance and aero set-ups, enabling us to be race ready over a Grand Prix weekend, checking systems and protocols, but also establishing clear and effective communication channels between our bases in the US, the UK and – ultimately – trackside. Simon has brought experience and energy to the process and has helped us hugely.”
