Bourdais, Tristan Vautier and Loic Duval drove the JDC Miller MotorSports Cadillac to victory at the track last year, despite the car’s suffering severe battle scars, including damage at the rear caused by an off-track excursion and impact with a tire wall.
While Vautier and Duval have remained at the Savage, MN.-based squad, Bourdais has become a full-time driver in Chip Ganassi Racing’s #01 entry, alongside Renger van der Zande. He is confident that the six-year-old Cadillac design remains the Prototype best suited to the bumpy 3.741-mile course at Sebring.
After describing the former airbase as “probably one of the tracks that I enjoy the most out of the whole schedule,” he said “there is no arguing” that it also lends itself to the DPi-V.R’s characteristics.
“Now it’s a two-manufacturer battle between Cadillac and Acura – but even when it was Mazda [involved too] – it’s pretty clear that Cadillac with the Dallara chassis has better characteristics for bumpy tracks. It’s a car that is less ride-sensitive than the competitors. We can see that we can run a bit softer, which at a place like Sebring is very beneficial.
“The drawback of that is the car doesn’t really have a big peak in downforce and therefore and is less suited to tracks where you can run low and stiff. It’s a balance.
“But obviously it’s won quite a few championships since 2017, so it seems to be working out pretty good.”
Bourdais admitted he was both frustrated by the setbacks in Daytona, but encouraged by the pace shown.
“That #01 Cadillac team has done an amazing job like they always do with Chip Ganassi Racing. The car was really comfortable and really quick. I felt really good in the Roar [Before the 24 qualifying] race; the penalty took us completely out of contention. We were 45 seconds behind the lead and ended up being 20-some seconds at the end of the race. Definitely had the pace.
“Then, in the [24 Hours], we’re leading at six hours and leading when we had that electrical problem at 13 hours in, so I think quite clearly we had the pace. It’s just that to win motor races you need to be there at the end, and we didn’t manage that yet.
“We had our ups and downs with JDC [in 2021]. We had some really good cars and some really bad cars, and you know me, I tend to be good in the car when the car is close to what I need instead of when I’m just hanging on.
“It’s still early days to know what the differences are throughout the season between what I’ve been through in 2020 and some of the races in 2021 [both with JDC Miller] and now in ’22 with the #01.”
Bourdais has won in IndyCar, Champ Car, IMSA, WEC, V8 Supercars and junior open-wheel formulas. Asked by Motorsport.com where he ranked his Sebring triumph last year, given that he had to ‘carry’ a wounded car to victory in the closing hours, while defending against four other cars.
He replied, “I think it’s definitely in the top five. I don’t keep a ranking, but one of the craziest races and probably the one I still rank as No. 1 is Denver 2004 – coming from the back after the incident at the start with Bruno [Junqueira] and going on to pass everybody and winning. That was really special.
“After that there’s just a lot of close races, like Milwaukee [2015, his second win there saw him lap the whole field] was crazy and this [2021 Sebring] one is definitely right up there.”
