The Cadillac-JOTA partnership is great news for fans of sportscar racing, for two reasons on the surface.
1) JOTA, a stalwart of sportscar racing and WEC, get a factory partnership after years of impressing in LMP2 and Hypercar with a customer programme
2) Cadillac stay in the FIA World Endurance Championship, when they could have left after the partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing wasn't renewed for 2025
But, with news today about the driver lineup at Cadillac-JOTA next year (spoiler: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Sebastien Bourdais, Will Stevens, Norman Nato, and Jenson Button) it shows the American GM-owned manufacturer is finally taking WEC seriously.
A half-hearted effort
Looking back at Cadillac's 2023/2024 WEC programme, it's fair to say it maybe wasn't as intensive as it could have been.
The team had a single car — the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R — run by Chip Ganassi, with Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn joined by Richard Westbrook in the first year of operation. Westbrook left the team after 2023 and essentially wasn't replaced, with Cadillac employing guest drivers from either their or CGR's ranks for the longer races – namely Bourdais for Qatar and Bahrain, and Indycar champion for Chip Ganassi, Alex Palou for Le Mans.
While it was a valiant effort which showed the car's inherent pace, the effort was focused around entering Le Mans. This is exactly what WEC doesn't want — instead, the series wants full season, multiple car commitment from manufacturer teams.
Hence the two-car mandate for next year. This has good and bad points — which we'll discuss in the next article in our for/against series — but it does mean we'll get two Cadillacs in WEC next year, which can only be a good thing.
For both Cadillac and JOTA, the benefits are enormous. They'll get double the amount of data to learn from, and more chances of success — literally double — plus more brand presence for partners and sponsors.
Indeed, when Cadillac and JOTA were still in discussions for the 2025 partnership, the commercial aspect was something Cadillac were keen on, JOTA director and co-founder Sam Hignett told me when I spoke to him.
Phil Oakley
'We'd always had dialogue with literally all of the manufacturers,' he said.
'And then a year or so ago, the conversations with Cadillac seemed to accelerate a bit, with their existing supplier getting to the end of their contract.
'So yeah, it all stemmed from there. We kept the conversation going and they've seen what we'd achieved obviously.
'Our commercial success as well, is very appealing to them. so bringing the whole thing together has landed us with the two-car factory program.'
In 2023, the Chip Ganassi-run Cadillac team have been plagued by issues and misfortune. After taking a podium result in Qatar, they were disqualified for the car's diffuser strakes being very slightly out of tolerance when compared to the CAD. In Spa, Bamber had his enormous accident down the Kemmel Straight when things were looking good for the team.
In Brazil they had issues with brakes while running well in the top 5. In Fuji they qualified on pole, but fell back early on, then crashed late in the race when Bamber made a misjudgement while overtaking traffic.
But with two cars in the series, it means if they have issues with a single car, the other car is hopefully still there as a backup.
Partnership with experienced WEC team
JOTA are one of the most experienced WEC teams around, with an entry in the series since 2017 and running at Le Mans for years before that, with a class win in 2014. They know what they're doing and how to win.
While Chip Ganassi Racing are a very experienced team who, undoubtedly, could have won races with the V-Series.R, they maybe lack the specific, detailed WEC experience JOTA have.
The American team had to get to grips with new circuits and tracks in the WEC, compared to the US circuits they know well from their extensive IMSA and Indycar experience. With one car, they were generating less data when compared to a team like Penske, and so had less to learn from - essentially a self-fulfilling cycle.
The base set up for the WEC programme in Germany was also brand new, so while many team members could have been hired from competitors, it was always going to take time for everything to gel.
But, having raced in WEC since 2017, JOTA know these tracks like the back of their hands. And, with extensive prototype experience, the team will be able to get up to speed with the V-Series.R quickly.
'I think it's the team that brings the experience to Le Mans,' said JOTA's Hignett in our chat about the Cadillac partnership.
'One of the reasons they partnered with us because we do have quite a wealth of experience there. Already we're working with them on our knowledge of Le Mans and what we can do. So I think that that is part of the value.'
Finally, the driver line up is truly stellar, with Cadillac factory drivers in Bourdais, Lynn and Bamber, plus three hugely experienced drivers in Stevens, Nato and Button.
The partnership will hopefully take both JOTA and Cadillac to the next level, and put both in the frame for regular wins and podiums in WEC competition.
Hignett's fellow JOTA director and co-founder, David Clark, summed it up well, from the British team's perspective, at the end of our conversation.
'I think it's a great thing for Cadillac that they've got JOTA,' he said.
'Let me just say that, not just because I'm part of JOTA but I think... look at Mercedes. They they could have come into Grand Prix racing like Toyota. But they get a team created by Toto Wolff. And, you know, the rest is history.
'And I think the combination of that is the feeling that we have with Cadillac. It's a very very strong feeling. It's not the onslaught of an enormous corporation,' he concluded.
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