Aitken, Taylor “Raising the Bar” in Cadillac ‘One Team’ Approach

Photo: Cadillac

Jack Aitken and Ricky Taylor said their appearance in last weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship rookie test at Bahrain International Circuit with Hertz Team JOTA has been to help “raise the bar” on Cadillac’s ‘one team’ approach.

The American manufacturer, which has five Cadillac V-Series.Rs competing across the WEC and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, has pushed for a cross-pollination of drivers, engineers and crew between the programs to help make further gains on the LMDh package.

While Earl Bamber undertook dual season efforts with Action Express Racing and JOTA in the WeatherTech Championship and WEC, respectively, Cadillac’s IMSA stars Aitken and Taylor got their first laps in JOTA’s Cadillac over the day of testing at the WEC venue.

“It’s been quite nice this year feeding a bit more information between the teams, sharing data and ideas,” Aitken told Sportscar365.

“We’re just trying to collaborate a little bit better and raise that bar.

“Especially when you have five cars racing across the world now, if you’re not taking advantage of that, it’s kind of shooting yourself in the foot a little bit.

“Today we’ve been doing a bit of cross-pollination, trying a few ideas from our side of the pond and doing things of our own back here as well.

“I think they’re pretty well sorted, having just done the race weekend, so the car is not bad at all as a starting point.”

Taylor added: “Working with the team directly on a performance basis this weekend has been nice. The team works in a really nice way.

“It seems like they have a really nice environment within the team.

“They’ve been successful with the Cadillac, so it’s been interesting to see the behind-the-scenes of what goes into that.

“Speaking sort of the same language of the same systems and tools we use, it’s all the same stuff but it’s interesting to see how they do a weekend.

“Even from [Saturday] getting to watch them run the race strategy and listen to their communication. Nothing’s easy to take and be instantly performant.

“But it’s interesting to see another way of going about racing.”

Wayne Taylor Racing, in its first year with the Dallara-chassied V-Series.R, had utilized JOTA WEC drivers Will Stevens and Norman Nato as additional drivers for several Michelin Endurance Cup rounds this year, which has also come as a benefit.

“That was a bit part of having Will and Norman come over was getting to work with them,” said Taylor. “Obviously they’ve had great success in WEC.

“One thing they’ve always said is their working relationship. I can definitely see it first hand here.

“The performance guys talk to each other from WTR to JOTA and they’re obviously exchanging much more high level things than I am picking up here.

“I think that’s what’s important. Just as I’m here creating a bit of a crossover last weekend, this weekend in Daytona (for IMSA-sanctioned test) they’ve got a few guys coming there.

“I’m interested to hear their feedback on us.”

Aitken, who along with co-drivers Bamber and Fred Vesti are coming off victories in the final two WeatherTech Championship GTP races of the season, said the Gary Nelson-led Action Express team has seen benefits this year with the crossover.

“I think all of the drivers have benefited from it,” he said. “It’s strengthened the ties between the teams as well.

“I think that’s how a program like this should work. The fact that in the first year of really pushing that agenda, it’s been as successful as it has been, is quite encouraging.

“It’s going to go from strength to strength. I see it only being a positive.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John