Westbrook, who will contest the full FIA World Endurance Championship with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Cadillac team, makes a one-off IMSA start in this weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours.
He spent last season in IMSA with the JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPi team, after four seasons of GTLM competition with CGR’s Ford GT program in America.
Speaking about his Cadillac V-LMDh, Westbrook, who finished third overall for Glickenhaus in last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, said: “It’s more of a driver’s car, definitely.
“And I think it’s very good for the GT drivers [coming across to GTP] as it’s heavy and doesn’t have a lot of downforce – but has a lot of power.
“There are no tyre warmers and these tyres are very difficult to bring in. It’s going to put a lot of emphasis on the driver.
“Raceability is going to be better than the DPi, with less downforce and the fact you have to double-stint tyres. One car is going to have more tyre deg than another, and over two hours that’s going to get exposed a lot.
“It’s going to be fascinating, but I just can’t wait to get past this initial period of preparation and just get racing.”
Westbrook brushed aside concerns that this weekend’s twice-around-the-clock race at Daytona could be overshadowed by reliability issues with the new LMDh cars, which feature a common electrical hybrid system that has proved troublesome in testing.
“People have got to stick with it, you’ve got to look long-term,” he added. “If a few cars break down at Daytona, you can’t write the whole new era off. You’ve got to give it time. We’re going to give it our best to put on a good show.
“When you see a manufacturer [Lamborghini] delaying its entry for a year, there’s a reason for that. One thing is for sure, when it all settles down and everyone gets sorted, we’re going to be in for a treat.”
Along with his teammates Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber, Westbrook’s #02 Caddy will start from fifth on the grid in Sunday’s 61st running of the Daytona 24 Hours.
