The brand-new Cadillac team is rapidly preparing for its Formula 1 debut in 2026. According to Pat Symonds, a top engineer and consultant for the fledgling racing team, the journey towards the first Grand Prix is ‘quite terrifying’. At the same time, he emphasizes that this underscores the enormous dedication within the American project.
Cadillac officially received the green light from the FIA to join Formula 1 this year. It has since found two competent drivers in veterans Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez. Pat Symonds – himself a veteran within the sport – highlights the impressive growth the project has undergone in a short time, but also the extensive challenges that come with setting up a completely new Formula 1 team.
“It’s quite terrifying,” he told Autosport. “But what is absolutely amazing is the dedication of everyone at Cadillac. We only received our official registration in March of this year, 364 days before VT1 in Australia. You can’t really build a team from scratch in that period. So there was already an incredible commitment to get people on board.”
Rapid Growth
The Brit explains that the rapid growth and staff recruitment were a huge challenge. “One of the things I thought would be the hardest was recruitment – and it turned out to be,” he admitted. “At the beginning of this year, we had 159 people employed in the United Kingdom. By the time we got the registration, there were about 209, and now we’re at 426. So it’s grown incredibly fast, despite it being incredibly difficult.” In addition to the new base in Silverstone, Cadillac has a headquarters in Indiana.
Symonds emphasizes that the technical quality within the team pleasantly surprised him, but the scale of the project is unique in his career. “When I arrived, the quality of the work immediately struck me,” he continued. “Of course, I already knew many people – colleagues with whom I have worked in the past. But that does not change the fact that work is being done at the highest level.”
‘Much Work to be Done’
Yet, Symonds remains realistic about the magnitude of the task. “There is still a tremendous amount to do. I will never say that building a Formula 1 car is easy, but I have seen about forty of them by now. You naturally learn what all is involved. The rest – building the infrastructure, the processes, the logistics, the buildings – you don’t do that often. That is not only incredibly difficult, you often lack the necessary experience. But so far, they have been remarkably successful here.”
In May 2024, it was announced that Pat Symonds would step down from his duties as technical officer within Formula 1. Not much later, Andretti – the current Cadillac team – announced that Symonds would join the American racing team. After nearly eight years outside of competition, the sporting challenge beckoned for this savvy engineer. Symonds has a proven track record. He started in the 1980s with the Toleman team, which was later renamed Benetton. There, he worked as a race engineer for Michael Schumacher, among others. He also contributed to the later Renault. In 2011, Symonds joined Virgin Racing and served as technical director for Williams in 2013.
