JOTA have begun their preparations for the 2025 World Endurance Championship with their new team Cadillac.
The British outfit will take over from Chip Ganassi Racing next season as Cadillac’s customer team, under the name Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA.
JOTA have been a Porsche customer team in the WEC since 2023, after previously driven Oreca machines in the LMP2 class.
The team have topped the World Cup for Hypercar Teams’ standings for the past two seasons, winning their first race in the Hypercar class in 2024 at Spa.
But despite their success with Porsche, JOTA will be moving to pastures new and will be hoping to take Cadillac up the field in 2025.
Will Stevens enjoys ‘good first day’ with Cadillac after shakedown test in France
The American manufacturer ran only one Hypercar in the WEC in 2024, but with the rules stating that teams must at least have two Hypercars in the championship next year, Cadillac will field an exciting driver line-up in 2025.
Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn will stay with the team in 2025, having driven the Cadillac V-Series R this season at every race.
Sebastien Bourdais will move to the team full-time next year having competed at the season opener in Qatar and the finale in Bahrain. The Frenchman had been racing with Cadillac in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2024, finishing fourth in the standings.
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JOTA will bring three of their drivers with them to Cadillac, with Will Stevens, Norman Nato and Jenson Button moving over from Porsche. Former drivers Callum Ilott has joined PREMA in IndyCar for 2025, while Phil Hanson will drive the satellite AF Corse with Ferrari in the WEC next season.
JOTA have wasted no time in their preparations for next season as they took the tarmac at the Anneau du Rhin in France to test out their new V-Series R for 2025.
And after what was a successful test, Stevens wrote in the comments of the team’s Instagram post: “Good first day team”, as the Brit got his first outing in Cadillac machinery.
Cadillac endured a difficult 2024 WEC season
The American manufacturer joined the Hypercar class in 2023 and scored their first podium that year with third in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Cadillac only failed to score points once all season.
But in 2024, as more manufacturers joined the grid, the team struggled to consistently find results. Bamber, Lynn and Bourdais were disqualified from the season opener in Qatar for a mispositioned rear diffuser.
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Retiring from the races at Spa and Fuji, the No. 2 V-Series R scored points four times across the season, with a best finish of fourth at their home race at Lone Star Le Mans in Austin.
Cadillac finished seventh in the Manufacturers’ Championship with 42 points, finishing only ahead of Lamborghini. Isotta Fraschini withdrew from the championship after just five races, failing to score points in any event.