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WEC Losail

Cadillac has no plans for customer Hypercars in WEC or IMSA

Cadillac has ruled out providing customer versions of its V-Series.R LMDh to teams competing in the World Endurance Championship or the IMSA SportsCar Championship in the immediate future.

#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Sebastien Bourdais

There are no plans to follow the lead set by Porsche in selling cars to independent teams in either series, stated Laura Wontrop Klauser, sportscar racing programme boss at Cadillac parent company General Motors.

“It doesn’t make sense to go down that path at this point,” she said.

“Customer cars are not happening as of now, but you never use the word definitely in this sport.”

The concentration on its Ganassi-run Cadillac Racing and Action Express Racing factory teams in the WEC and IMSA represents a departure from Cadillac’s previous strategy with the DPi-V.R Daytona Prototype international of 2017-22.

Customer cars were raced in IMSA by the Spirit of Daytona/Flis Motorsports, JDC-Miller and Juncos squads alongside what can be described as the semi-works entries from Wayne Taylor Racing and Action Express.

Only after WTR’s departure to Acura for 2021 did Cadillac mount a fully-funded factory campaign with Ganassi.

Asked for the reasons for the change in philosophy, Klauser said: “Different car, different programme.”

No decision has been made on whether Ganassi will expand from one to two cars in the WEC next year, according to Klauser.

“We will figure out 2025 when it makes sense, but we are not there yet,” she said.

#31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Pipo Derani, Laura Klauser of Cadillac

#31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Pipo Derani, Laura Klauser of Cadillac

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Klauser would not discuss whether the rejection of Cadillac’s Formula 1 entry in conjunction with the Andretti team for 2026 could free up finances to expand the LMDh programme.

Limited resources were cited by Cadillac as the reason for Ganassi sticking with one car in the WEC for this season.

Cadillac’s representation in the series will again expand to three cars for the Le Mans 24 Hours in June when Ganassi and Action Express field their IMSA entries in the double-points WEC round on 15/16 June.

 

BMW, meanwhile, has stressed that it is still yet to make a decision on customer versions of its M Hybrid LMDh.

“We have quite some requests from teams that could be interested,” BMW M Motorsport boss Andreas Roos told Autosport.

“I don’t want to say it is not happening, but I also don’t want to say, ‘Yes we will go’.

“The question is about the support from the engineering side and spare parts so the team can really run on a high level.”

It is unclear whether there would be room for any additional customer cars in the WEC in 2025.

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The Hypercar field is likely to increase by three to 22 cars should the series be able to carry through on its plan to expand the grid to 40 entries from the current 37.

Two of those additional spots are set to be filled by the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar and a second factory Lamborghini SC63 LMDh fielded by Iron Lynx.

The GTP class in IMSA currently only has 10 full-season entries, with another car fielded by Lamborghini in the endurance rounds starting this month at the Sebring 12 Hours.

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