Oil Fills Dashed Hopes of Lead-Lap Finish for No. 2 Cadillac

Photo: Richard Prince/Cadillac

Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook both reckoned they could have finished on the lead lap of the 24 Hours of Le Mans had their No. 2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R not needed numerous oil replenishments during the race.

Bamber, Westbrook and co-driver Alex Lynn combined for a third place overall result, giving Cadillac its first-ever podium finish in the French endurance classic.

It came after a relatively trouble-free run for CGR’s full-season WEC entry, which slotted in ahead of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship-based No. 3 car of Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon that bounced back from early race setbacks.

Speaking with Sportscar365 post-race, Bamber said he felt they were able to match the pace of both the race-winning Ferrari 499P and Toyota GR010 Hybrid LMH cars during portions of the race but suffered delays during its pit stops for oil top-ups.

The Cadillacs, and other LMDh cars such as the Acura ARX-06 faced a similar issue at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, understood to be related to the series’ renewable fuel.

IMSA utilizes an 85 percent renewable fuel blend from VP Racing Fuels, while TotalEnergies supplies a 100 percent renewable fuel in the WEC, with teams and manufacturers working in different ways to mitigate oil contamination.

“I think at times we could match [Ferrari and Toyota], we just lacked the consistency to be able to match them all the time,” Bamber said. “Toyota again [showcased] their experience and we just slowly drifted away.

“It’s definitely closer than the previous [WEC] races.

“We just had to keep putting oil in every stop, which was costing us 6-10 seconds, which was making us slowly eke our way back.”

Bamber said the oil fills began from the second stop of the race.

“We just had to keep putting a lot of oil in it,” he explained. “Those sort of details, you get away with it at Daytona but here, five seconds, ten seconds every stop, and there were 30 stops…

“That’s like three minutes, which is nearly one lap, which is what we missed. It’s all in those details, which we’re going to continue to refine as a program.”

Westbrook, meanwhile, estimated the the oil top-off was actually costing them a “good 13-15 seconds” every stop.

“So to finish just one lap down when we were losing so much time every pit stop, adding oil.. When you add that up, it’s the lap right there,” he said.

Both drivers, however, also looked at the positives of what was a near-flawless run executed by the Stephen Mitas-led crew.

“I think we had a nearly perfect race,” Bamber said. “We made some good strategy calls in the wet, survived it. I think the key this year was the amount of carnage that was out there.

“We managed to survive. We had good speed at different parts of the race but ultimately not the consistency that Ferrari had. They were monstrously fast.

“I think for Cadillac in general as a program, we can be pretty proud. We led laps here, the first ever time to lead laps for Cadillac Racing here.

“That’s a big tick box for this program. To get an overall podium I think is a big, big step.

“Overall I think it’s really positive. If you came and said to us, ‘Look, you’re going to finish on the podium at Le Mans as Cadillac Racing’ I think you’d definitely say, ‘We’ll take that.’

“A lot of manufacturers have tried, Porsche, Peugeot all those other people and they didn’t make it. So I think we could be proud.”

Westbrook added: “Someone just said to me, ‘Oh that was lucky.’ That wasn’t luck. As you saw how many cars went out, you really had to choose when to push and choose when to survive.

“We’ve all got work to do. For us, we kept our heads clear and kept our heads strong and I think we deserved third.”

O’Gara “Pleased” With Results But “Not Satisfied”

CGR’s director of global operations Mike O’Gara told Sportscar365 that the two-car team “didn’t miss a beat” throughout the race and was proud with the results after overcoming adversity, particularly with two accidents from the No. 3 Cadillac.

“I think we proved today that we were ready and prepared,” he said. “We had some adversity.

“We had some crashes that happened out of our control (with the No. 3 car). We had some other issues come up and we just tackled them as they came and just kept plugging away and ended up third and showed that we can fight with these guys.

“I’m super pleased with the reliability, with the pit stops, all the procedures and everything.

“This place is like the Indy 500. When you’re done, half of you just wants to be done with the place for a while and the other half is ready to come back for next year.

“That’s how I am now. I’ve already got a list in my head of what we’re going to do better and how we’re going to come back and beat these guys.”

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