No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R impresses on Sebring circuit; IMSA GTP cars show speed
SEBRING, Fla. (March 16, 2023) — The No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R will start on the inside of the third row in the 1000 Miles of Sebring on Friday in Cadillac’s debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class.
Alex Lynn covered the 3.741-mile, 17-turn Sebring International Raceway course in 1 minute, 46.082 seconds on his fourth of five laps in the 15-minute qualifying session. The No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse earned the first pole of the WEC season with a best lap of 1:45.067.
Lynn will co-drive the hybrid Cadillac V-Series.R with Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook.
Its sister racecars – the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R and the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R – will compete for the pole Friday morning in qualifying for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on Saturday in the second race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
Both cars were near the top of the time sheet in three free practice sessions.
Cadillac will aim for its third consecutive victory in the endurance race and fifth in the past seven years. Last March, Sebastien Bourdais set the qualifying lap record of 1:45.060 in the No. 01 Cadillac DPi-V.R. Lynn and Earl Bamber teamed with Neel Jani to lead a Cadillac sweep of the podium in the 2022 race.
Lynn is a two-time overall winner (2017, 2022) of the 12-hour race at Sebring in a Cadillac DPi-V.R and Bamber has an overall and class win. Teammate Richard Westbrook co-drove a Cadillac DPI-V.R to the runner-up finish last March.
The 1000 Miles of Sebring is scheduled for noon ET/5 p.m. CET. The race will air live on MotorTrend in the U.S. with streaming coverage on the MotorTrend app. Radio Le Mans will broadcast the race.
No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R
Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook
Alex Lynn drove in the qualifying session (qualified fifth; 1 minute, 46.082 seconds on five laps): “It felt really good and that’s why I was a little bit disappointed to be only P5, but I think all credit has to go to Cadillac Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing because I think we’ve come into WEC and made a strong impression so I’m really proud of this team. I think we’re in a good spot. (about the race) It’s only just begun really. We’re in a strong place, we have a fast racecar and I think we just need to run the eight hours really clean and really hard. But I think we’re in a stronger place in the race potentially with how we are with our tires because I think we know that the Hypercars can boost up their power quite a lot, so we need to work out where we can improve and go again tomorrow.”
What the IMSA GTP drivers are saying
Jack Aitken, No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R: “The car feels good and I think we’ve made good steps forward even from the test we had here last month. Rather than trying to dial in the car exactly for the conditions we have at the time, we’re trying to get an idea of how the track is evolving and target the end of the race to have the car on point for those conditions. That’s going to be the crunch time. If we can manage that evolution of the track through the race, then that’s even better.”
Scott Dixon, No.01 Cadillac V-Series.R: “It’s been good. As always here at Sebring, tracing the track in the morning to the high temperature in the day and kind of cool in the night it definitely makes it fun because it’s never the same. Traffic seems to be a little more demanding than normal, which is interesting as well. I think everybody on the team has done a great job making improvements and making progress.”
