Sébastien Bourdais starts this week in the #01 Cadillac Racing DPI at the beginning of a full season that will encompass bot the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship and, in the LMP2 class of the FIA WEC with newly formed Vector Sport.
“It’s not the full season for WEC, because I won’t be doing the 1000 miles at Sebring but I’ve never done the WEC other than just Le Mans, and that’s the whole point. It’s just a very different set of rules, and they can be quite unforgiving.
“It is always a good thing to be more than on-point with the rules and penalties so that execution and knowing the ropes and how things work, and what to do, and what not to do is quite important if you are going to be successful, and if you are going to be quick with strategy.
“So trying to think around 2023 and the available options, I felt that it was probably not a bad idea to rehearse a little bit and get myself familiarised, again, with the intricacies of what racing WEC and with the FIA, and at Le Mans involves.”
In some way is this more than that – is it an opportunity to put yourself in a shop window, to display what you can do?
“Let’s put it this way, I’m not going to talk about contracts. But I’m sure you can understand and imagine that getting that (WEC) programme was not without a perspective past 2022.
“Obviously, there’s no hiding that the goal of this whole programme in ’22 is a rehearsal for what’s to come in the LMDH era. And, yeah, I’m really excited about that, and really trying to prepare for it the best way possible.
What is it about the coming season that you are personally looking forward to?
“It’s a two-stage season, right? Basically, the goal for the team is obviously to try and give ourselves the best chance to win the championship.
“There was a ton of speed last year that was displayed with very little to show for it at the end. That’s the way racing goes sometimes, and I’m sure everybody at Ganassi would love not to have a repeat of last year because that’s gut-wrenching and really frustrating.
“And then as you know, the ’22 season, the other part of it, is getting ready for ’23.
“There’s obviously going to be a quite intense development period of the LMDH side of things. I think that’s supposed to be at some point in the middle of the year. So yeah, it’s going to be quite intense and I’m very much looking forward to that as well.
“Add to that the Vector Sports programme with Gary (Holland) Nico Mueller and Ryan (Cullen) and it’s still going to be less of a busy season than my usual you know, 6 WEC, plus whatever IMSA races but, yeah, it’s a good balance. It’s quite an intriguing challenge with interesting prospects going ahead. So yeah, I’m looking forward to the experience.
For this race. It’s a seven-car field, but it’s one hell of a seven-car field, and there’s friendships, rivalries, needle. Everything is in the mix here. Are you looking forward to that?
“Yeah, of course. As you say, I mean, there’s there are basically seven cars that can go out there and win the race. So it’s gonna be a challenge.
“But I think we are pretty well geared for the challenge and definitely giving ourselves the best chance possible to do the job. It’s always exciting when you have almost a factory effort with Cadillac and a team that operates the car to the quality of Chip Ganassi Racing standards. They don’t mess around. They come with one goal, and that is to win races and championships and they’ve done that for a long time and then they know how to do it.
“So being one of the lucky drivers to actually sit in that car and drive is an honour and yeah, as always I am very much relishing the opportunity and the challenge.”
And then for next year there is the prospect of double, even treble this number in the top class?
“Yeah, we’ll see what happens here with the Hypercars but at Le Mans, we’re gonna be looking at 20 plus cars for victory with what, 10 manufacturers?
“I mean, that’s unheard of, even in the golden days of endurance racing, it wasn’t like this. So, you know, the spectacle that’s going to be provided to the fans is going to be amazing. And as a professional racecar driver, you can’t ignore it.
“The appeal of that is humungous. I’ve had some very sour experiences with Le Mans in the past before it kind of got a little sweeter with the Ford (GTE Pro) win, but a win overall is still the one thing, the nugget that you’re chasing as a professional racecar driver.
“I’ve had more heartbreaks than I can counts so hopefully, we’ll give ourselves a chance to correct history.
“We have the centenary of Le Mans coming too next year, you’ve already been a part of the 100th running of the Indy 500, could Le Mans’ anniversary make this the biggest race event ever bearing in mind the field that looks to be assembling?
“As far as endurance racing is concerned. Yeah, I think it’s not even debatable. It’s a fact.
“I think for a long time, everybody was like, Man, where is endurance going and what’s gonna happen. And now it seems like we’re all in for a super-cycle in the endurance world and, and prototype racing, and that’s pretty exciting.”
You’re hungry still for that?
“Why do you think I’m here!?”
