Jota director and team founder Sam Hignett has explained why his World Endurance Championship outfit are switching to Cadillac for the 2025 WEC season.
The British team are moving away from Porsche after a competitive season in WEC this year, winning at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps with Callum Ilott and Will Stevens.
Jota are going to run two Cadillac V-Series.R LMDhs next season as WEC teams may be required to compete with two cars in the Hypercar class.
They are taking over the factory programme run by Chip Ganassi Racing, who will not continue their relationship with General Motors in both WEC and IMSA.
CGR have been running just one car in the World Endurance Championship over the past couple of seasons and are yet to win a race in that time.
Hignett emphasised the importance of being a manufacturer WEC team for Jota
Jotas’s move to Cadillac had been anticipated for some time, and it may have been agreed earlier in the season just before the British outfit took victory at Spa.
The Cadillacs will compete under the ‘Cadillac Hertz Team Jota’ banner as the team continues their relationship with the car rental company that was instrumental to Jota making the step up to Hypercar.
Hignett said, via motorsport.com, that collaborating with the American manufacturer after parting ways with Porsche at the end of the season is ‘the realisation of the goal to become a manufacturer team’.
Seeing the way that Cadillac performed with Chip Ganassi Racing in the World Endurance Championship was also key for Hignett to decide to sign with the GM brand over continuing with Porsche.
“Having competed against the Cadillac V-Series.R for the past two seasons, we have experienced how competitive it is and we are genuinely honoured and privileged to be entrusted with fielding the cars from 2025 onward,” he said.
“You can count on one hand the manufacturers you’d choose to go sportscar racing with and Cadillac and GM are on that hand. Along with Porsche and Ferrari, they are one of the names synonymous with endurance racing.”
Since WEC relaunched in 2012, manufacturer teams have been much more successful than private entries, with manufacturer entries consistently battling for victory at Le Mans.
Jota are yet to decide who will drive for them in 2025
Jota haven’t announced their drivers for the two Cadillacs ahead of next season and Hignett said that it’s probable they will run with a blend of Cadillac and Jota drivers.
He continued: “That would be a fair assessment and that is likely where things will end up, but potentially there could be some newcomers.”
Both Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn are likely to switch to Jota from Ganassi, so will be familiar with the Cadillac having raced in it since the start of 2023.
The WEC season ends in November after the 8 Hours of Bahrain at the Bahrain International Circuit and Jota won’t test the Cadillac until the campaign ends.
“We need to do the right thing for everyone involved in our current programme and finish this season, and then it will be on with the new programme as soon as the season is finished,” said Hignett. “It is going to be a very hard off-season.”