JOTA Expects Easier Transition to Cadillac Than 2023-24 Move

JOTA Sport co-owner Sam Hignett believes the transition to factory Cadillac team status next year will likely be a less challenging change for the team than it has experienced in the past two FIA World Endurance Championship seasons.

As was announced in August, JOTA will be taking over from Chip Ganassi Racing as Cadillac’s works entrant in the WEC for the 2025 campaign, and will field a pair of V-Series.Rs under the Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA banner.

Long-time LMP2 outfit JOTA stepped up to the WEC’s top division last year with a single customer Porsche 963, and added a second car for the 2024 season.

Discussing the transition from Porsche to Cadillac machinery, Hignett said achieving works status was something JOTA had been “working towards since the LMDh regulations were first announced” at the start of 2020.

But the Briton is not expecting the move to be quite as tough as the initial step up to Hypercar and the expansion to two cars, especially with the Porsche and Cadillac both using the LMDh platform and therefore using the same common hybrid system.

“We had our hand forced with the demise of LMP2 in WEC [after 2022],” Hignett told Sportscar365. “We didn’t want to take a step backwards, we wanted to stay in the WEC, but the only way to do that was to become a privateer in Hypercar.

“The most significant changes for the team were that year, and then becoming a two-car Hypercar team this year. I’m hoping the change to a factory Hypercar team is less than those changes. Hopefully the rate of change each year is slowing down.

“We know our way round prototype cars, and we have good knowledge of the hybrid system, which remains fundamentally the same between the Porsche and the Cadillac.

“I think with the simulation technology that exists now, we’ll be able to get up to speed reasonably quickly. I’m not too concerned about that.

“It’s just about learning the nuances of the car, and the WEC is so competitive now that [mastering] those nuances is what wins you races.”

Next weekend’s Bahrain season finale will mark JOTA’s final outing with the Porsche 963, with which it became the first privateer outfit to win a WEC race outright since Rebellion Racing in 2020 and the first in the Hypercar era, in this year’s 6 Hours of Spa.

The team also sealed the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams in last month’s penultimate round at Fuji, beating opposition from AF Corse’s third-string Ferrari 499P and fellow Porsche customer outfit Proton Competition.

“It will be a shame to say goodbye to the Porsches,” Hignett said. “If you ask the guys on the shop floor, there’s probably some frustration that we are changing cars again just as we’ve got on top of things and they’ve worked out how to get the most out of it.

“It has been a significant chapter in the team’s history, even if it’s only lasted two seasons. It’s maybe the biggest chapter in our history.

“But we are limited as to what we can do as a Porsche customer team from a financial and resource point of view. To take the business to the next step the obvious choice was to become a factory team as we are doing with Cadillac.”

Hignett Sees Cadillac as “Ideal” Fit for JOTA Team Culture

JOTA’s move to works status will not lead to a significantly increased head count inside the team, added Hignett, who also clarified that Tomoki Takahashi will retain his role as technical director into the squad’s new era.

“The main expansion was done at the beginning of the season for the second car,” he said. “We have a couple of new recruits, and trackside we will be bigger because we will have some GM support crew with us, which is something we haven’t had before.

“We will be a bigger operation trackside with the extra GM staff, but the headcount of the team itself isn’t intended to grow much at all.”

Hignett also said that he sees no reason to fear any dilution of JOTA’s trademark efficiency or quick-footedness with the tie-up with Cadillac, and even sees the American marque as sharing similar values.

“There are some hurdles in becoming a factory team, some of which we know about,” said Hignett. “But from what we have seen so far, Cadillac are quick to react and very proactive in what they are doing, and likewise [chassis constructor] Dallara.

“[The team’s culture] is something that mustn’t change and I don’t see any reason why it should. The Cadillac staff seem really on it, so it should be a good fit for us.

“There is boundless desire and passion to succeed within the organisation to succeed, which is the same with us. They do a very good job of keeping it all nimble and quick and away from big-company politics. It’s an ideal tie-up for us.”

JOTA won’t take delivery of its Cadillacs in time to take part in the WEC Rookie Test that immediately follows the Bahrain finale, and will also sit out the Michelin tire test that is set to take place at the same track in the following days.

But Hignett said he expects the team’s new cars “should be delivered in time to test this year” at a European venue.