Cadillac is approaching its home race in the FIA World Endurance Championship in the USA next weekend (5-7 September) buoyed by a maiden victory last time out in Brazil and targeting a repeat performance – with Earl Bamber warning the American marque’s rivals that it is ‘just warming up’...
Having been threatening such a momentous result all season – its third at the international pinnacle of the discipline – Cadillac finally made good on its palpable promise with a commanding one-two finish in the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo, as the #12 V-Series.R Hypercar crewed by Alex Lynn, Will Stevens and Norman Nato led home the sister #38 prototype piloted by Bamber, Sébastien Bourdais and Jenson Button.
A large part of that progress, the New Zealander opines, is attributable to the brand’s off-season tie-up with giant-killing British outfit JOTA to form Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA. The new entity was immediately on the pace in the Qatar 1812km – briefly running first and second in the campaign’s curtain-raising contest – with Lynn and Bamber going on to secure an historic front row lockout in the Hyperpole qualifying session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. And then came Interlagos…
“When we started [in FIA WEC] in 2023, we achieved a podium, but now where we are as a programme, we’re so much further ahead,” Bamber reflected. “I think everyone forgets that we’re still quite a young programme compared to some of the older ones like Toyota and Porsche, and we are continuing to learn week-in, week-out against those teams.
“When we sat down together at the beginning of this season, we all had pretty clear goals. If you look at how we’ve progressed, we were pretty quick in Qatar and then struggled at Imola, but since the JOTA guys worked out what we need from the car with both crews, we’ve gone from-strength-to strength. We’re making big strides, and to get our first win probably exceeded everyone’s expectations for the year.
“I think JOTA’s knowledge has really lifted the whole programme forward. They know the championship well, they know the rules well and they know the mentality and the work ethic that it takes to win in FIA WEC, so that combination and the fact that we (Cadillac) were on a real rise at the end of 2024 allowed us to hit the ground running.
“Everyone has their own bit of experience to bring to the table, and I think the cohesion and sharing of data has been helpful. There’s a great exchange of information, which has really ramped up our performance levels on-track, off-track and in the sim. Everyone’s starting to gel together more and more, so I think we’ll continue to get stronger as the season progresses.”
Having already left its adversaries trailing in São Paulo, those are words to strike fear into the heart of every other Hypercar team on the grid, all the more so since Cadillac boasts a strong previous record at the next two venues – Austin’s Circuit of The Americas and Fuji Speedway. Bamber and Lynn qualified third and finished a season-high fourth at COTA in 2024, with the latter subsequently putting the V-Series.R on pole position for the first time in Japan.
The American event holds particular significance for the brand, which will be keen to consolidate its Brazilian breakthrough on home soil. Bamber – who triumphed in Austin in 2017 on his way to clinching the LMP1 world championship crown – is confident that the track’s high-downforce nature will play to the V-Series.R’s strengths.
“Obviously, the team is on a complete high from Brazil,” the 35-year-old acknowledged. “That took a big weight off of everyone’s shoulders. Morale is high, but at the same time, motor racing is always very good at bringing you back to reality very quickly, so we’ve been working really hard over the last month or so – we definitely haven’t stepped off the throttle.
“The upcoming races have typically been quite good for us, and I feel like COTA is going to be naturally in that progression range where we’re starting to understand how to unlock the full potential of the car. It really suits the Cadillac’s style and architectural layout with its high-speed corners. We did a lot of the development work in America, so we’re looking forward to going back. Having won once, normally the second one comes a lot quicker and a lot easier, so that’s the hope.
“The main goal for Cadillac and JOTA is to get a good ranking in the Manufacturers’ Championship. We’re second right now and while closing the gap [to Ferrari in the lead] is going to be tough, we’re taking it race-by-race and if we’re always in the top five, always execute and keep chipping away, we know we’re going to be scoring big points and end up somewhere at the front.
“[Looking further ahead], we’re aiming to fight for the Manufacturers’ title and we’re already starting to prepare for 2026 with high hopes. Everyone is on the front foot and we’re hungry to win again, so I feel there’s some great momentum within the team. We’re certainly not finished yet. We’re just warming up...”
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