Charles Leclerc‘s former race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros has been appointed as the new technical director of Cadillac‘s LMDh programme.
Marcos served as a Formula One race engineer since 2018 and supported Leclerc when the Monegasque joined the Scuderia Ferrari team in 2019.
He retained his role when Frederic Vasseur succeeded Mattia Binotto as team principal in December 2022.
After last year at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Marcos switched to an alternative role and for 2025, will lead the General Motors manufacturer’s technical department in their top class sportscar efforts.
Cadillac’s 2025 LMDh programme consists of the JOTA factory effort in the FIA World Endurance Championship, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Wayne Taylor Racing – plus Action Express Racing – in the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
He began in F1 with HRT and Williams Racing as a performance engineer for each of them. From 2015-17, he was chief race engineer for NASCAR Cup Series team Richard Childress Racing prior to his seven-year tenure at Scuderia Ferrari.
Now at Cadillac, Marcos will focus on the engineering, car performance and development aspects of their V-Series.R race car.
Keely Bosn began her role as LMDh programme manager at the start of this year, which is one of the new titles within the Cadillac LMDh project leadership restructure.
The second new role was ‘propulsion manager’ – given to Sean O’Shea – who will overlook the V-Series.R’s 5.5-litre naturally-aspirated V8 and the specification Bosch hybrid system.
IMSA’s approaching season-opener, the 24 Hours of Daytona on 25-26 January, will commence Cadillac’s LMDh racing season as the FIA WEC season kicks off on 28 February with the 1812km Qatar.
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