F1 veteran reveals motivation behind return role: 'You've got another championship in you'

F1 veteran Pat Symonds has revealed it was his wife who urged him to return to the sport's frontline and take up a challenge being offered by Cadillac.

Symonds has been involved in F1 for the majority of the last 50 years, working with Toleman, Benetton, Renault, Virgin/Marussia, and Williams, before serving as chief technical officer of Formula 1 for seven years.

During that period, Symonds was instrumental in the return of the ground-effect era cars in 2022, as well as playing a role in the new regulations for next season.

The 72-year-old has conceded that when first approached by the then Andretti bid, before it morphed into Cadillac, he was far from keen, and it was only after speaking with his wife that he agreed to take on the role of executive engineering consultant.

"It's quite interesting because I was approached right at the start, and I didn't particularly want to do it," said Symonds, speaking in an exclusive interview with RacingNews365. "I was very interested in what I was doing at FOM. There were some really good projects there.

"But I sort of missed the competitive part, and I thought long and hard about it, largely because of the people involved, particularly Graeme [Lowdon, team principal], who I have a huge amount of time for, and Nick Chester [technical director], who I worked with for many, many years.

"My wife said to me, 'Go on, you've got another championship in you'. She's very optimistic. She probably doesn't want me to retire."

Symonds has played a leading role in seven titles overall during his years with Benetton and Renault, helping Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso to their back-to-back titles in 1994-95 and 2005-06 respectively, alongside three constructors' crowns. 

As to whether his wife is right, and whether Cadillac has the potential to be a championship-winning team, he replied: "Yeah. 

"When I was at FOM, I was asked to evaluate the entry from a technical point of view, and I was impressed.

"When I arrived at Silverstone, and I started talking to people, as I said, many of whom I knew, and I looked at what was in place, I was even more impressed.

"There are an awful lot of things happening that I can see, through our race simulations and things that are real front-of-the-grid standard, and a lot of very good people there."