Behind the Speed: How the Cadillac Formula 1 Team Never Stops Working

The checkered flag drops. The champagne flows. The crowd erupts. For most of us, that is where the story ends. But for the Cadillac Formula 1 Team, the moment the race is over is the moment the next one begins. Season 2 of Cadillac’s original series “What Makes Fast” pulls back the curtain on what happens in the hours and days immediately following a race weekend, and the answer might surprise you. There is no rest, no celebration tour, and no downtime. There is only work.

Just days after stepping out of the car on race day, Cadillac F1 driver Valtteri Bottas is already strapped back into the team’s simulator at the GM Technical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. His mission is a process known as correlation: matching his real-world, seat-of-the-pants impressions from the race to the car’s detailed digital counterpart.

In Formula 1, on-track time is tightly regulated, which means the vast majority of a car’s development has to happen in the virtual world. Getting the simulator to accurately mirror the real car is not just helpful. It is essential.

Sim driver Simon Pagenaud and the full simulator team in Charlotte dedicate countless hours to making sure the digital version of the car behaves exactly like the physical one. Every nuance, every handling characteristic, every split-second reaction the driver experiences on track has to be faithfully reproduced in the simulator before meaningful development work can begin.

When that correlation is dialed in, the payoff shows up exactly where it matters most: on the track, from Friday practice all the way through Sunday’s podium celebrations.

It is an exciting time to be a Cadillac fan. Watching the brand compete at the highest level of motorsport is a powerful reminder of the engineering excellence and relentless drive for performance that defines Cadillac. Those same qualities are present in every vehicle on our showroom floor.

Tags: cadillac EV, cadillac racing, Formula 1
Posted in Cadillac Racing | No Comments »