‘Bitter’ curtain-raiser for Cadillac, but team buoyed by ‘amazing’ pace
A number of teams had hard-luck stories to tell following last week’s Qatar 1812km, but none more so than Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA, which came away with just an eighth-place finish having looked to be in contention for a maiden victory.
The Cadillac V-Series.R has shown strong potential on several occasions since joining the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar category two years ago, but rarely has it been more competitive than it was in Qatar, the opening round of the 2025 campaign.
After featuring consistently up towards the sharp end during the traditional ‘Prologue’ group test around Lusail International Circuit – locking out the top two positions on the timesheets on the first day – the new Anglo-American alliance maintained that front-running form into race week, with Alex Lynn and Sébastien Bourdais lining up respectively fourth and fifth on the grid for the ten-hour contest.
While Will Stevens in the #12 prototype found himself shuffled down to 12th at the start, Earl Bamber in the sister #38 entry was in determined mood, and displaced Ferdinand Habsburg’s Alpine from fourth around the outside of Turn One on lap eight.
The New Zealander came unstuck while challenging Kevin Magnussen at the same spot not long after, spinning down the order to 17th, but that would be the catalyst for a sensational charge through the field, as Bamber unleashed a scintillating turn-of-speed to scythe his way up to third, only 17 seconds adrift of the lead an hour-and-a-half in.
A Virtual Safety Car period for a beached Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 car then dealt Cadillac a trump card entering the race’s third hour – or so it seemed. The two leading Ferraris had both just pitted, whereas Bamber and Stevens took advantage of the neutralisation to stop under VSC conditions – catapulting them to the front of the pack when the subsequent safety car picked up the peloton.
With not a great deal to choose between the Cadillac V-Series.R and Ferrari 499P in terms of outright pace – and a backmarker between them – the battle looked to be on, until disaster struck when Alex Lynn and Jenson Button made contact as the action was about to resume, obliging both cars to return to the pits for repairs.
A drive-through penalty for the #12 and a throttle issue for the #38 then delayed the team further, restricting the former to a frustrated eighth at the chequered flag and the latter a distant 16th, 11 laps down.
Despite the turbulent ride and the clear disappointment of the end result, the Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA drivers nonetheless took heart from their consistent speed, which they will now look to translate into a champagne celebration in round two of the 2025 FIA WEC season – Italy’s 6 Hours of Imola on 18-20 April.
“What an up-and-down race!” reflected 2009 Formula 1 World Champion, Button. “Obviously we made some mistakes, but I think the most important thing to take out of it is the pace we had. It looked like it was going well initially and then Earl had his spin, dropped way down and fought his way back with a staggering drive to come up to the front again. Then we had the incident behind the safety car and got on with the racing after that.
“Unfortunately, we had penalties due to pitting when we weren’t supposed to and we lost another seven laps fixing the throttle. It was a messy day, but the pace was amazing. Everyone who got in the car was super-quick, and I think we take a lot of positives away overall.”
“There are many positives, but to be totally honest, you can’t override the bitter feeling of the day,” added Lynn. “I have a huge amount of faith in JOTA having felt the car, and I know what we are capable of doing. Like all great sportspeople, we need to pick ourselves up and carry on.”
