Sebastien Bourdais believes Cadillac has a chance to fight for victory in the 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours – unlike last year – courtesy of improved top speed.
Cadillac achieved a 1-2 in Hyperpole last year with both of its Jota entries, but Bourdais had displayed unusual pessimism following that performance.
The veteran feared the V-Series.R was going to struggle in race conditions due to its lack of straightline speed, and the outcome proved him right as the podium eluded the American constructor.
A year later, Bourdais’ outlook is much more positive. “Our package looks competitive with its updated aero, which has most likely put us back in a window where we can fight,” the Frenchman, who shares the #38 car with Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber, commented shortly before Free Practice 1.
“Le Mans is Le Mans, you never know what’s going to happen, but feeling like you have a chance to fight is rather pleasing already. I think many people didn’t believe what I was saying last year, but as far as I’m concerned, I have a much more positive outlook – ‘Right, now we should have the means to fight’.
“I’ve said it 250 times, our car was very fast [in 2025] but was achieving the lap time in the Porsche curves. You can’t win Le Mans with a car that gets the lap time in the Porsche curves when they’re traffic-free once every 15 laps. We were unable to overtake, we got passed, we couldn’t clear traffic on straights like others, we were sliding all the time, it was inevitable.
“You can’t win Le Mans without Vmax, it’s impossible. This year, clearly, our car’s package seems to be more aligned with the others and therefore should give us a chance to fight. But that’s all you can ask for in a BoP championship where one does not dictate what you do with aero or with engines – only when everyone has a chance does the formula work.”
Race pace analysis indicated that Cadillac was second-fastest from Toyota on the Test Day, but the Japanese manufacturer suggested some of its rivals may be sandbagging, and Bourdais himself doesn’t believe the pecking order to be so straightforward.
“We are in the mix,” the Le Mans native reckoned. “Clearly, Toyota is very, very strong. I absolutely don’t expect Ferrari not to be in the mix, there will be more players than this. You can see some are struggling a bit, but overall, performance-wise, I feel like it could be the tightest Le Mans – which is great because this is the aim of the formula, quite simply.
“BMW will be up there. They didn’t show anything on the Test Day, but they will be up there. We know the data, there’s no reason for them not to be.”
Cadillac ended up topping FP1 by a whopping 1.7 seconds – with the usual caveat that free practice results must be taken with a grain of salt.
