(Motorsport-Total.com) – Cadillac is not yet running with its own power unit for its Formula 1 debut, which is not scheduled to arrive until the 2029 season, but is instead using Ferrari’s engine and gearbox for the time being. However, the American team is refraining from taking over as many parts as the technical regulations would allow.
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For comparison: The second Ferrari customer team in the field, namely Haas, even uses suspensions, steering, and the steering wheel from Maranello in the VF-26. For Cadillac, however, this was out of the question, emphasizes Pat Symonds, the team’s technical advisor.
“What we might have done a little differently than, say, the last new team that came in, is that we firmly believe that we should take our own destiny into our hands and that we are a works team,” the Briton says, even hinting at the Haas team. “We will be a works team.”
“So if you look at our car, you will see that we didn’t just buy all the components we could,” Symonds emphasizes. “We decided that since we are taking the Ferrari engine, we would also take the Ferrari gearbox, but we didn’t buy the entire rear end as others might have done.”
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Important decision to make progress
“We felt that we had to build our own gearbox casing, our own rear suspension, and so on.” At the same time, the technical regulations of the premier class would certainly have allowed the parts to be taken over from Ferrari and used.
“Although there are a number of parts that you could still legally take over, we decided against it,” the experienced Formula 1 engineer reiterates his statement and explains: “I think it is very important to understand the philosophy behind your own design if you want to make progress.”
Against the background that Cadillac is planning the development of its own powertrain and wants to completely separate from Ferrari for the 2029 season, this decision is crucial, according to Symonds. “It’s hard to further develop someone else’s philosophical design if you don’t understand all the nuances involved.”
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