Bourdais: CGR Cadillac Battled Electrical Issues

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

The No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R fought through electrical issues in Saturday’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring according to Sebastien Bourdais, who along with co-drivers Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon, were forced to settle for a second place finish.

Bourdais held command of the race heading into the final hour although lost the lead to the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 of Louis Deletraz with six minutes to go.

Deletraz went on to claim victory in the late-race thriller.

The Frenchman revealed post-race that its Dallara-chassied LMDh car battled a series of electrical gremlins that set them back on a few occasions over the course of the around-the-clock enduro.

“I think the whole Cadillac and Ganassi team did a great job,” Bourdais said. “It was maybe not as straightforward as we would have liked.

“We had some electronics [issues] at some point. You saw the car slowing down. I was really worried this was going to happen again. Maybe that [cost us] the race.”

Bourdais revealed that the anti-lock-brake system was acting up at one point, admitting that it “didn’t look pretty” for a moment.

“We kind of had an ABS failure time and time again,” he said. “We tried to do some defaults and every time it came back. We cleared it, then the motor stopped coming out of [Turn] 7. That’s where we lost the three spots to the two Acuras and the BMW.

“We got going again. We never heard of it anymore. That was kind of weird.

“I honestly don’t really remember when it was. It was my second time in the car during my second stint. The rear brakes started to get on fire, the rear tire pressures take off. It didn’t look pretty for a minute.

“But the guys did a great problem. They debugged the problem and found a solution. We got going and were there in the end. That’s all you can ask for.”

When asked about the No. 40 WTRAndretti Acura in the end, Bourdais admitted he was unable to match the pace of Deletraz.

“I think we don’t play any games,” he said. “I think if you look at the race, both Acuras had a lot of pace. They were quite a bit faster on the fastest lap.

“We managed the tires very well over the double stints we had to do, both Scott, Renger and I, managed to keep the degradation in check.

“When they turned it up, we simply didn’t have anything for them.”

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