IMSA
Cadillac hurt by mid-season IMSA tire switch, says Bourdais
Sebastien Bourdais feels Cadillac's IMSA SportsCar Championship form has suffered due to a mid-season switch in Michelin's tire compounds.
Joey Barnes
Published: Sep 13, 2023, 1:12 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Bourdais, co-driver of the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R with Renger van der Zande, made the remark as he shared his thoughts on the team's progress ahead of the Battle on the Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on September 17.
The 44-year-old Frenchman said something that has caught his attention in particular is the change in tire compounds that began three races ago in the Six Hours of The Glen.
“We can see that some cars use the tires better than others depending on the conditions,” Bourdais said. “We’ve been using the harder tire from Michelin ever since Watkins Glen and it’s definitely flipped the order a little bit.
"The Cadillacs were a bit happier on softer compounds, taking better care of the tires. Now that it’s the harder tire through the summer and it’s going to hold true at Indy, it has been harder for us to extract the most out of it and others have been able to kind of pop up in terms of performance.
"It’s interesting to see the evolution track to track and circumstances after another. I think it’s all very close. The BoP [Balance of Performance] has worked well. It’s been good racing and we’ve seen a lot of different winners, so I think the crowd has a lot to look forward to.
“For us, the GTP has been quite different because it’s a heavier car with better tires but more weight with a lot less downforce, so it’s a different combination and you have to be more patient with the car but you still have to push rally hard. The racing has been ferocious, so you have to earn it.”
The 2023 season began solidly for Bourdais, recording a third-place finish at the Rolex 24 at Daytona before capturing his lone with of the season thus far at Laguna Seca in early May.
However, since the Six Hours of the Glen, the #01 car has not been able to finish higher than fourth, leaving Bourdais and van der Zande sixth in the overall standings with two races to go.
“It’s a completely new car and we at Cadillac have not really been in a different position than anybody else,” Bourdais said. “We’re figuring things out along the way.
"It was good to go testing [at IMS]; it was really the first test to prepare for Indy since Sebring. So, we learned quite a bit of things about the car, and we went to Road America and it was definitely beneficial. We were on pace and happier right away.
"The race weekend didn’t necessarily turn out the way we wanted, but it definitely felt like we found a step in terms of pace. It’s a classification that changes a lot.”
Bourdais goes into the IMSA event at IMS as a former winner in 2012, taking glory with co-driver Alex Popow in a Daytona Prototype during the Grand-Am days on the previous 2.534-mile configuration (now 2.439-mile).
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article IMSA VIR: Corvette Racing claims victory over title rival
Next article IMSA Indianapolis: Porsche leads Acura in opening practice
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Joey Barnes
Colton Herta eyes potential Indy 500 return and IMSA enduros as 2027 plans remain in flux
FIA F2
FIA F2 16 h
Colton Herta eyes potential Indy 500 return and IMSA enduros as 2027 plans remain in flux
Frederik Vesti steps up to full-time role as Cadillac Racing details 2027 IMSA lineup
IMSA
IMSA
Frederik Vesti steps up to full-time role as Cadillac Racing details 2027 IMSA lineup
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
Feature
IndyCar
Feature
IndyCar
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
Latest news
WEC: Barcelona 6 Hours schedule and TV times
WEC
WEC WEC
Barcelona
50 min
WEC: Barcelona 6 Hours schedule and TV times
Brennan Poole joins Jordan Anderson Racing for 2027 NASCAR O'Reilly season
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Phoenix II
2 h
Brennan Poole joins Jordan Anderson Racing for 2027 NASCAR O'Reilly season
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Phoenix
6 h
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
11 h
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe