Sebastien Bourdais: “We played the long game”

Cadillac Racing are taking a number of positives from their outcome within the season opener of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). The American crew had been the “better of the remainder” after ending fourth behind an all-Porsche podium on the Qatar 1812km. Drivers Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber and Sebastien Bourdais all put in stellar efforts to deliver residence outcome on the Lusail Worldwide Circuit.

The Cadillac V-Collection.R held its personal in a really aggressive Hypercar discipline initially of the brand new golden period of endurance racing. Contact on the first nook initially knocked the Cadillac out of rivalry. Whereas tough to see precisely what occurred, the automotive squirmed underneath braking resulting from getting pinched into an ever-decreasing hole, inflicting the Cadillac to tag the again of the #94 Peugeot TotalEnergies automotive.

Nevertheless, the 1812 kilometre race had nearly ten hours left to run. The Cadillac pitted for a brand new nostril on lap 33. As soon as again out on observe, Lynn was matching the tempo of the lead pack, exhibiting simply how aggressive the automotive might be. Bourdais’s first stint from lap 67 was arguably most spectacular, thundering his approach by way of the pack as much as tenth place.

All through the remainder of the race, the crew carried out persistently effectively, with Bamber taking the automotive up into the highest 5. Bourdais took again over on lap 269 and introduced the automotive residence in fourth place after the #93 Peugeot ran out of gas on the penultimate lap.

Alex Lynn, who was within the automotive for the opening lap incident, mentioned “We knew we had good tempo within the automotive this weekend. Contemplating first race of the yr and the way in which the race began, I believe we’ll positively take the outcome.”

Earl Bamber, whereas reflecting on the race, mentioned “I believe it provides us nice momentum. The crew did an incredible job and on the technique they did a strong job to tug us all the way in which again up.” He added that, “when you would have mentioned in the beginning of the day that we’d get a fourth place, I believe we’d have taken that comfortably. It’s one thing that we will construct on going to Imola and Spa and the remainder of the season.”

“We discovered ourselves in a gap in the beginning and we performed the lengthy recreation” defined Sebastien Bourdais. “That was actually the plan going into the race. We caught to the plan and shortly we noticed that guys had been getting away from the 10-stint technique. We mentioned, ‘If we will keep it up, then that may very well be a very good outcome,’ and that’s precisely what occurred. Actually joyful for the crew and I had a number of enjoyable within the automotive. It’s a cool place to drive and a enjoyable race.“

Cadillac Racing might be hoping to construct on this momentum on the subsequent spherical of the FIA WEC at Imola on 19-21 April. They must work onerous to keep up their type in opposition to an ever-improving pack.