Pat Simonds: My wife convinced me to take on a new challenge.

      Renowned engineer Pat Symonds worked for many teams, then spent seven years as Formula 1's technical director, took part in developing the technical regulations, and has now decided to return to working with a team after accepting an offer from Cadillac.

      In an interview with RacingNews365 the 72-year-old engineer admitted that his wife persuaded him to take on the new challenge...

      Pat Symonds: "At first I wasn't particularly keen on doing it. I liked my job at FOM; we had several good projects. But I missed the sense of competition, so I was considering Cadillac's offer, not least because Graham Loudon and Nick Chester, with whom I have worked a lot in the past, were involved in the project.

      And then my wife said to me, 'Come on, you can be a champion again.' She is very optimistic. She probably doesn't want me to retire.

      When I was working at FOM I was asked to evaluate Cadillac's entry from a technical point of view, and I was impressed. Then I went to Silverstone, spoke with the people, and was even more impressed. Everything about this project meets the highest standards and there are many good specialists."