Bamber to Drive Three Cadillacs on Le Mans Test Day

Earl Bamber will sample three of the four Cadillac V-Series.Rs entered for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in this weekend’s official test day.

The New Zealander is listed to drive both Hertz Team JOTA Cadillacs, the No. 12 car as well as his regular No. 38 FIA World Endurance Championship mount, as well as the one-off No. 311 machine fielded by Action Express Racing on Sunday.

Bamber explained his role in the test will be to “compare balance and feel” between the JOTA cars and the Whelen-branded car that is set to be shared in the race by AXR regular Jack Aitken, Felipe Drugovich and Frederik Vesti.

“It’s been really good this year,” said Bamber. “All the Cadillac teams are working really well together, working really hard together with the same common goal.

“I think the biggest goal for all of us is just a Cadillac wins the race. The most important thing for us is to get them on the top step. We were on the podium once already [in 2023]. That was a really special moment, but we need to get on that top stand.

“When driving both programs this year, that’s something that we really spoke about as a strength, and we’ve been really working hard and the relationship between the Whelen [AXR] guys and the JOTA guys — we are on the phone together all the time.

“The collaboration is definitely helping the progress in the WEC with the learners that we have over here. And a bit vice versa on the IMSA side.”

Both JOTA Cadillacs have a total of five drivers listed against them for the test day, with Bamber and Sebastien Bourdais added to the No. 12 crew and Alex Lynn and Will Stevens likewise added to the regular trio of the No. 38 car.

The No. 101 Wayne Taylor car meanwhile has Louis Deletraz listed as a fourth driver alongside brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque.

Cadillac has not officially named a reserve driver for Le Mans, although Drugovich’s participation in next weekend’s race has been called into question due to his status as Aston Martin Formula 1 reserve and question marks surrounding Lance Stroll’s fitness for the Canadian Grand Prix, which clashes with the WEC blue riband.

Elsewhere in the Hypercar class, Porsche reserve driver Nico Mueller has been listed as an additional driver for all three Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s for test day.

The same applies to Jose Maria Lopez for both Toyota GR010s, with the Argentinian serving as unofficial reserve for the Japanese marque at Le Mans, Philipp Eng in the two BMW M Hybrid V8s and Theo Pourchaire for the pair of Peugeot 9X8s.

Ferrari, Alpine and Aston Martin do not have any extra drivers beyond their regular crews listed on the entry, likewise the Proton Competition Porsche.

In LMP2, there are only two additional drivers on the test day entry list: Sophia Floersch in the No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing car, and Bijoy Garg, part of last year’s class-winning United Autosports crew, in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition entry.

There are no additional drivers listed for any team in LMGT3.