WEC Portimao
Maiden WEC podium for Cadillac possible with perfect Portimao race - Lynn
Alex Lynn believes a maiden World Endurance Championship podium for his Cadillac Racing team will be possible if it can "execute a perfect race” in Portimao on Sunday.
James Newbold Gary Watkins
Edited: Apr 16, 2023, 6:49 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The new Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh finished fourth on its WEC debut at last month’s Sebring 1000 Miles and will start tomorrow’s six-hour race from eighth on the grid.
Richard Westbrook qualified the solo Cadillac Hypercar entry he shares with Lynn and Earl Bamber 2.411s down on polesitter Brendon Hartley’s #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID at the Algarve International Circuit.
Speaking prior to qualifying, where both Ferrari 499P LMHs, the two Penske Porsche 963 LMDhs and the #94 Peugeot 9X8 LMH outpaced the Cadillac, Lynn expressed hope that the Chip Ganassi Racing-run car can challenge the podium places with an error-free race and stressed that it is not content to be the best LMDh entry.
Asked by Motorsport.com for a feasible weekend target, Lynn replied: “I think another top-five. And again if we execute a perfect race, we can be on the podium.
“We consider Toyota to be the benchmark, I think everyone does.
“Ferrari have come out of the box with a very fast car, especially over one lap, but in race trim we think we can beat them or we can be with them and that’s what we want to do tomorrow.
“We want to be with Ferrari fighting for the podium and if we can come closer to Toyota and maybe make them make a mistake, that’s what everyone is trying to do.”
#2 Cadillac Racing - Cadillac V-Series.R - Hybrid - Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook
Photo by: Paul Foster
Bamber said he believes Cadillac could be stronger than the AF Corse-run Ferrari 499P LMHs on tyre wear in the race.
Speaking prior to qualifying, Bamber told Motorsport.com: “Free practice was pretty much as expected given that we’ve never tested here.
“I think our strong point is on tyre deg. We saw that at Sebring.”
Lynn believes that it will be a question of time for Cadillac to get closer to the more established WEC manufacturers, with Toyota benefitting from continuity in its driver lineup and team leadership despite bringing an updated car for 2023.
“To try and catch that up does take a little bit of time, but the work ethic of us, Porsche, Ferrari to catch up is super-high,” he added.
“The amount of people that are going testing to try and bring the level up – the work rate is the highest I’ve seen in my career, from every team.”
Speaking on Friday, Toyota’s Mike Conway said that the increased Hypercar competition had helped it to find more improvements on its own package.
“I think we’d always chase our own tail anyway in terms of trying to maximise performance all the time,” he said.
“But yeah, I think it does help when you’ve got competition out there. Whether it’s a certain sector or a certain corner where we can see that they’re faster, we need to know why.
“Maybe you wouldn’t have seen that as clearly before when you were just racing on your own, it’s more between the two cars. So it definitely raises everyone’s game.”
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 WEC Portimao: Hartley leads Toyota 1-2 in qualifying; Ferrari third
Next article Toyota put new focus on WEC qualifying after losing out at Sebring
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
James Newbold
Did Audi ‘give up’ on GT3 too soon?
GT
Did Audi ‘give up’ on GT3 too soon?
Alex Zanardi’s top 10 moments
IndyCar
Alex Zanardi’s top 10 moments
Latest news
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
3 h
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 3 h
Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
8 h
Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”
Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Indonesian GP
8 h
Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams
Feature
Discover prime content
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