Four Cadillac V-Series.R within average of class

WECHyperCar

Jun 10

All Cadillac works drivers among top 40 fastest lap per driver (except Ricky Taylor) even though quickest lap time among the 21 Hypercar entries wasn’t necessarily the primary objective.

📷© Luc Warnotte at Le Mans Test Day. Four Cadillac V-Series.R

Alex Lynn in the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R cracked the top 10 of the day as he was the fastest of the factory Cadillac Racing teams with a 3:27.620, 1.374 seconds slower than Test Day benchmark.

The #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R started strong by placing third (3:28.491, 15th of the day) and the #311 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R recording the fifth-best lap (3:28.923) overall in the opening free practice.

The #101 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, making its Le Mans debut, posted a best lap of 3:28.909 (17th overall). The #311 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R also improved with a lap of 3:28.097 (13th of the day).

📷© Luc Warnotte at Le Mans Test Day. Four Cadillac V-Series.R.

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R

The #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R driven by Alex Lynn, Norman Nato and Will Stevens and the #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R driven by Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais and Jenson Button are full-season FIA World endurance Championship (WEC) competitors. The #12 entry finished fifth and the #38 car placed sixth in the most recent race at Spa-Francorchamps.

Alex Lynn: “Track running has been limited with incidents. We ticked off a lot of our programs, which is great. The competitiveness of everyone is really tight. There are a lot of brands that are in great shape, and I would put us as one of them. Next week is going to be a big battle to try to win this one. I think we learned what we did right the last couple of years. We tried a few new bits. Some worked, some didn’t and I we know the Cadillac suits this track nicely so we’ll try to put together the things we’ve known for the last couple of years.”

Norman Nato: “The aim of today was to prepare the car for next week, not only in terms of setup but in terms of making sure everything is working properly. It was quite a big change from the morning to the afternoon (temperature) so we didn’t do much setup adjustment because we know the car could be quite different next week. We followed our plan to prepare us the best possible for next week. First time with Cadillac in Le Mans for myself, so still a lot to learn. Every time we’re on track we keep learning. The target is to go as fast as possible but to also be spot on on strategy, avoiding mistakes and have as clean a race as possible. For that, you need the ability of the car to be there, no driver making a mistake, a good strategy. So, that’s why we’re trying to put everything together today to prepare for next week.”

Will Stevens: “Overall, I think we got through plenty of things across the cars, which is always productive in what we ultimately want to achieve from today. It has been a bit stop-start with all the red flags and Safety Car procedures. You always get to the end of the Test Day at Le Mans and wish you had a few more laps. I think we’ve learned enough that we can spend the next couple of days assessing what we’ve learned and ultimately build the racecar that we want to build for next week. Plenty still to learn and hopefully improve for next week.”

📷© Luc Warnotte at Le Mans Test Day. #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R

Earl Bamber: "I think it was a good first run and good to get all four Cadillacs out running. We all had a good, clean session. For me, it was refamiliarization. I had done a lot of preparation work from the sims and good to finally be back at Le Mans. It’s good to be up front. We have a bit of work to do, and we’ll keep chipping away, but it’s certainly a solid start.”

Sebastien Bourdais: “We’re working through the program and trying to get the car in a good operating window with the setup. I think we’re making progress and finding solutions for the little things that need to be addressed, so I think we’ll be alright.”

Jenson Button: “The (afternoon) session has been up and down – I think it has been for everyone – with a lot of red flags, yellow flags, slow zones so it’s difficult to actually get a lap. But in terms of understanding the car, I think we’ve gotten a lot of useful information. We’re happy with the car, especially high-speed corners. But there are still some areas that need improving, so we’re on it and hopefully we’ll have it all sorted for the official test day this week.”

2 full-season IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship contenders.

The #101 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R driven by Ricky Taylor, Jordan Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque and the #311 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R driven by Jack Aitken, Felipe Drugovich and Frederik Vesti are full-season IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship contenders.

Ricky Taylor: “Really cool to have our first session here at Le Mans behind us. We are just taking it step by step, really focusing on making all the laps and getting miles underneath our belt. Next session we will start tuning on the car. We have not made any changes so far. We are just focused on getting laps and trying to get some experience here and then we will build as we get closer to the race.”

Jordan Taylor: “I think we did what we needed to do first sesssion. Obviously, we were just trying to log laps, and learn, and get data so we can kind of look at things over the session. All three of us got a few laps each, got a feeling for it and that is really all we could ask of this first session. (on being in a Hypercar) It was nice to be passing cars rather than looking in your mirror the whole time. So that was a first. I think since I have been in the Cadillac V-Series.R for a few races now, it felt more like just learning a new track. It was a good experience. We will look to keep evolving over the week.”

Filipe Albuquerque: “Very nice to do the first laps around Le Mans with the Hypercar. Especially because the last 10 years I have been in LMP2. The track is so smooth. I think it is even better this year with the new asphalt. It seems like a lot of time but when you go around this long track, it doesn’t really give you that many laps for each driver. Again, we are just going through the homework, going through the check lists and not worried right now about lap time."

📷© Luc Warnotte at Le Mans Test Day. #311 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R

Jack Aitken: “Similar to last year, the track was in surprisingly good condition because they’ve had support events running and it’s already got a bit of rubber on it. Straight away the car was working well. We have a known baseline from out previous years running here and have not strayed too far from that on this first day. We know we have a strong car, so it was nice to jump straight in and be looking at details rather than anything too big picture. I’m looking forward to returning this week to get more time in the car.”

Felipe Drugovich: "I think it’s been a good day overall. Managed to go through the plan and have a feel for the car and the track. It’s been almost six months that I have not driven this car, so it’s a long time and I’m getting used to it again. We’d like to be P1, but we have to get our work done first and then go for it. Everything went quite smoothly, but still a little way to go and things to improve yet.”

Frederik Vesti: “It honestly exceeded my expectations how cool it is to race here in the Hypercar. The Hypercar is a great car, a little bit heavy, a little bit tricky and sometimes like you feel like you miss a bit of grip. But at Le Mans it comes alive, and you can truly feel the downforce of the car. From my side, it was about getting laps and building a database of knowledge. For the team, we went through different test items.” Source: Cadillac Racing

Schedule

Wednesday 11 June 2025
14:00-17:00 Free Practice 1
18:45-19:15 Qualifying (LMGT3)

19:30-20:00 Qualifying (Hypercar)
22:00-00:00 Free Practice 2

Thursday 12 June 2025
14:45-17:45 Free Practice 3
20:00-20:20 Hyperpole 1 (LMGT3)
20:35-20:50 Hyperpole 2 (LMGT3)
21:05-21:25 Hyperpole 1 (Hypercar)
21:40-21:55 Hyperpole 2 (Hypercar)
23:00-00:00 Free Practice 4

Saturday 14 June 2025
12:00-12:15 Warm-up
16:00 Race start

Sunday 15 June 2025
16:00 Race finish