Former Charles Leclerc Race Engineer Takes On Key Role Ahead of Cadillac F1 Debut
If you’ve been following the noise surrounding General Motors (GM) and their push into the global open-wheel circus, you know they aren’t coming to play. They are coming to win. The latest power move from the Cadillac F1 team confirms just that. They’ve snagged Xavier Marcos Padros, the guy who spent years as the voice inside Charles Leclerc’s helmet at Ferrari, to serve as their chief race engineer.
For American racing fans, this is the kind of aggressive hiring strategy we love to see. Cadillac isn’t interested in being a backmarker. By pulling in a veteran from the Scuderia, they are sending a message loud and clear to the rest of the grid: We mean business.
The Ferrari Split and the Cadillac Opportunity
Let’s be real for a second. The relationship between a driver and his race engineer is like a marriage. It’s intense, it’s emotional, and sometimes, it gets rocky. For years, Marcos Padros was the calm and sometimes controversial voice guiding Leclerc through the chaos of Formula 1. They racked up five wins together. They fought for poles. But anyone watching closely saw the cracks forming.
When Ferrari shuffled Marcos Padros to “other company programs” after the Miami Grand Prix in 2024, it felt like a cold shoulder. It was an abrupt end to a high-profile partnership. Leclerc moved on with Bryan Bozzi and immediately found success at Monaco. It looked like Marcos Padros might be done with the F1 paddock for good.
But Cadillac saw an opportunity where Ferrari saw a spare part. Marcos Padros didn’t just sit on his hands. He went to work for Cadillac on their LMDh sportscar project, getting his hands dirty in IMSA and the World Endurance Championship. That was the audition. Now, he’s got the lead role for the big show in 2026. This is a redemption arc, pure and simple. He has a chip on his shoulder and a brand-new team to mold. That’s dangerous for the competition.
Building a Veteran Pit Wall
You can have the fastest car on the track, but if the folks on the radio don’t know what they’re doing, you’re parking it early. Cadillac knows this. That’s why they aren’t just stopping with Marcos Padros. They are stacking the deck with guys who have been in the trenches.
We now know who will be in the ears of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez. For Perez, it’s Carlo Pasetti. He’s coming over from Aston Martin, where he worked as a performance engineer. He knows how to extract speed and the grind. Then you’ve got John Howard pairing up with Bottas. Howard is an Alpine veteran.
He spent nearly 15 years there. He knows the midfield dogfight better than almost anyone. When you look at this lineup, you don’t see rookies. You see scars. You see experience. You see a Cadillac team that understands it can’t afford rookie mistakes in its debut season.
The Road To The 2026 Grid
The work has already started. We aren’t talking about simulations and spreadsheets anymore. Marcos Padros was reportedly right there in the mix when Perez shook down a 2023-spec Ferrari at Imola recently. That’s the first real taste of asphalt for this new squad.For Cadillac, the pressure is immense.
The Andretti name attached to the GM bid brings expectations, but the badge on the nose brings even more. This is American muscle stepping into a European playground. The transition from LMDh to F1 isn’t a small hop. It’s a massive leap. But having a guy like Marcos Padros, who understands the pressure cooker of Maranello, gives them an enormous leg up.
Final Thoughts
2026 feels a long way off, but in this sport, it’s tomorrow. Cadillac is building a foundation of granite here. They have the drivers, they have the money, and now, they have the tactical brains to make it stick.
