Cadillac address major question over key F1 team concern

Cadillac has played down concerns it will run into headaches by splitting its F1 operations across various facilities.

The American squad is joining the grid next year and is expanding the field to 22 cars for the first time since 2017.

It is establishing a base in Fishers, Indiana, which will be the headquarters of all of its racing operations, a power unit factory will be built in Charlotte, and it also has a base at Silverstone.

Pat Symonds, who has decades of F1 experience and is now working as Cadillac’s executive engineering consultant, asserted the team’s spread across the globe will not impact its operations.

“This is an American team,” he told media including RacingNews365. “This is based in America, but it's expedient to get things going to use some of the knowledge that's in Europe.

“For example, the wind tunnel, which is in Germany. That’s not just expedient, but there isn't actually a sort of tunnel that we know of in the USA that meets the requirements we need.

“So it is necessary, at the moment, to get things going by having these multiple sites. Ten years ago, I would probably have said, ‘Yeah, it is difficult’.

“But in recent times, and probably largely as a result of Covid, we've all got used to working in multiple sites, whether that be at home or whatever.

“Communication now is really so easy. I attend numerous meetings in a day and there are a lot of people on my screen, and I really am not aware of whether they're in Charlotte or whether they're in Cologne, or whether they're actually sitting next to me.

“It doesn't matter anymore, does it? We can do these things.”

No concern over 'physical separation'

Cadillac has already signed up Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as its drivers for next year, ensuring it enters its new era with an abundance of experience.

The drivers will work closely with the engineers to push the development of the car, an operation that will be spread across all of Cadillac’s bases.

Providing an update on when it expects the facilities to be completed, Symonds said: “Fishers is still a little way away from being completed, as indeed some of the Silverstone facilities and the engine plant.

“So really, we won't be using those in anger until the latter part of next year.

“We’ll move into our new place in Silverstone, probably after [summer] shut down next year. I think Fishers will be starting manufacturing in Q4 of next year - the engine plant, similar sort of time. And then I think we'll be a little bit more cohesive.

“But really, it doesn't worry me in the slightest that we have physical separation.”