By Bob Sorokanich, senior editor, GM News
For 2019 Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud, the Cadillac Formula 1® Team simulator is a tool for recovery
2025-12-08
By Bob Sorokanich, senior editor, GM News
Simulation is a crucial tool in modern racing. Thanks to high-powered computers and cutting-edge equipment, racing teams can test their vehicles and drivers in a virtual setting, gathering priceless data to prepare for the real-world competition.
For racing legend Simon Pagenaud, working in the simulator has a deeper personal meaning.
In 2023, Pagenaud was at the top of his career when disaster struck. Already a dominant force in sports-car racing, Pagenaud had pivoted to IndyCar in 2016, winning the Indianapolis 500 in 2019. (He became only the third French-born driver to win at Indy, 99 years after a fellow Frenchman, Gaston Chevrolet – whose older brother Louis founded the General Motors brand that still bears the family name today.)
In a practice session ahead of an IndyCar race in Ohio, Pagenaud’s car crashed violently, flipping several times in the air and landing upside-down in the gravel at the edge of the track. Miraculously, Pagenaud walked away from the crash, but lingering symptoms forced him to step away from racing.
“I felt like Superman before [the crash],” Pagenaud said. “I felt like nothing could ever stop me. When all that goes away, you feel very useless, very lost.”
This year, Pagenaud joined General Motors and the Cadillac Formula 1® Team as a sim driver. His decades of competition experience will help the Cadillac team as it conducts thousands of hours of testing in a virtual environment ahead of its competition debut in March 2026.
In the latest episode of GM’s YouTube documentary series “What Makes Fast,” we see Pagenaud at work in the Driver-In-Loop simulator at GM’s Charlotte Technical Center in North Carolina. The seasoned driver works directly with race engineers, testing and refining the thousands of variables that can make the difference between success and failure on the world racing stage.
Preparing the car for competition involves a mind-boggling array of adjustments. At the cutting edge of motorsports, the tiniest tweak can drastically alter the car’s performance. Translating between the technical and the track is where Pagenaud shines.
“Simon, as they say, has a very talented butt,” says his wife, Hailey Pagenaud. “He can get in the car and explain to any engineer exactly what that car is doing.”
When the Cadillac Formula 1® race car debuts on the grid in 2026, it will wear Pagenaud’s fingerprints. The experience has already had an impact on the driver.
“I’ll be loyal to GM ‘til the end of my life,” Pagenaud says. “It’s been a long road to recovery. Without the simulator, I would definitely not be as good as I am now.”
Watch the full episode below.
Simulation is a crucial tool in modern racing. Thanks to high-powered computers and cutting-edge equipment, racing teams can test their vehicles and drivers in a virtual setting, gathering priceless data to prepare for the real-world competition.
For racing legend Simon Pagenaud, working in the simulator has a deeper personal meaning.
In 2023, Pagenaud was at the top of his career when disaster struck. Already a dominant force in sports-car racing, Pagenaud had pivoted to IndyCar in 2016, winning the Indianapolis 500 in 2019. (He became only the third French-born driver to win at Indy, 99 years after a fellow Frenchman, Gaston Chevrolet – whose older brother Louis founded the General Motors brand that still bears the family name today.)
In a practice session ahead of an IndyCar race in Ohio, Pagenaud’s car crashed violently, flipping several times in the air and landing upside-down in the gravel at the edge of the track. Miraculously, Pagenaud walked away from the crash, but lingering symptoms forced him to step away from racing.
“I felt like Superman before [the crash],” Pagenaud said. “I felt like nothing could ever stop me. When all that goes away, you feel very useless, very lost.”
This year, Pagenaud joined General Motors and the Cadillac Formula 1® Team as a sim driver. His decades of competition experience will help the Cadillac team as it conducts thousands of hours of testing in a virtual environment ahead of its competition debut in March 2026.
In the latest episode of GM’s YouTube documentary series “What Makes Fast,” we see Pagenaud at work in the Driver-In-Loop simulator at GM’s Charlotte Technical Center in North Carolina. The seasoned driver works directly with race engineers, testing and refining the thousands of variables that can make the difference between success and failure on the world racing stage.
Preparing the car for competition involves a mind-boggling array of adjustments. At the cutting edge of motorsports, the tiniest tweak can drastically alter the car’s performance. Translating between the technical and the track is where Pagenaud shines.
“Simon, as they say, has a very talented butt,” says his wife, Hailey Pagenaud. “He can get in the car and explain to any engineer exactly what that car is doing.”
When the Cadillac Formula 1® race car debuts on the grid in 2026, it will wear Pagenaud’s fingerprints. The experience has already had an impact on the driver.
“I’ll be loyal to GM ‘til the end of my life,” Pagenaud says. “It’s been a long road to recovery. Without the simulator, I would definitely not be as good as I am now.”
Watch the full episode below.