Cadillac plans to bring an updated V-Series.R to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship for 2025, improving on the base model that won a clean slate of IMSA GTP titles and a podium in its first year Le Mans achieved from competition.
Speaking to RACER, Cadillac Racing’s FIA WEC team manager Stephen Mitas, who is on site at Daytona to assist Chip Ganassi Racing at the Rolex 24, confirmed that work is underway behind the scenes on the car’s development for the third year in GTP and Hypercar. .
“2023 was a learning year, 2024 is more about consolidation and 2025 is about upgrading the car if possible. General Motors is working on something, not for this season, but hopefully for next season,” he said.
“General Motors is always trying to improve the program. They are exploring every possible opportunity to bring a more competitive vehicle to market. It didn’t happen this year, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed for next year.”
When asked for more details about the specific areas Cadillac was working on, Mitas kept his cards close to his chest. “It’s a big discussion,” he said.
However, he did confirm that both the IMSA and WEC teams were in broad agreement on the areas of the car that they felt needed work.
“The circuits in America are very different from the circuits in the WEC, because in the WEC they are all Grand Prix circuits except Le Mans, but what is needed to improve the vehicle is common in both championships,” he explained.
One of the big question marks concerns the purpose of the upgrades coming to the V-Series.R. is whether Cadillac wants to focus on improving reliability, performance or both?
In IMSA the V-Series.R is already a race and title winner, while in the FIA WEC the best result in year 1 was third place. Did the difference in results in the two championships complicate the decision-making process?
Due to the Balance of Performance process applicable to GTP and Hypercar, obtaining approval to make performance-related changes to an LMDh car is not easy, as any upgrades must be justified to regulators before the car is tested and re-approved.
However, Mitas believes that performance-related improvements are inevitable, even when it comes to upgrades that specifically improve a car’s durability.
“It’s not a straight answer, because performance and reliability are closely linked,” Mitas responded when asked whether or not Cadillac hopes to release performance updates for the V-Series.R.
“But every time you make an adjustment to the car, reliability will improve and there will be an effect on performance.
“We are (now in an arms race). If you allow a racing team or racing organization to improve their cars, they will try to seize it and some have seized the opportunity before others. But because there are a limited number of tokens, people will strategically use them differently.”
So why 2025 and not 2024? Did Cadillac initially plan to roll out upgrades this season?
“It was always up for discussion,” Mitas clarified. “(Waiting a year before making any changes to the car) was the philosophy at the beginning of the project. Cadillac won the championship in IMSA last year, so maybe there isn’t as much pressure to update the car in IMSA.”
This echoes GM sports car program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser’s thoughts on Cadillac’s mentality when it comes to upgrades, as relayed to RACER at the end of the 2023 WEC season.
“We look at the things we want to do, we just want to make sure that if we make a change to the vehicle, it’s well thought out, that we go through the approval process and that we don’t rush it,” she said.
“We rushed some things to get on the grid in 2023, we had to make last minute decisions and sacrifices to do that,” she continued. “Fortunately we ended up with a package that has been strong in 24-hour races.
“So ultimately we want to make sure that if we change something, we don’t put anything in just to change something.
“Will we have a different discussion about changes in 2025? Probably,” she added at the time.
Details on how the testing program for the upgrades will work, where it will take place and when, are still a work in progress, according to Mitas.
However, he added that GM, which is working with Dallara and its GTP teams, “has a clear idea of what they want to do and throughout the year some of these things will be tested in the US or Europe.”
That work will continue at a pace as Cadillac battles on two fronts again in 2024, with a pair of works cars in IMSA and a single Ganassi-run V-Series.R in the FIA WEC.
The IMSA V-Series.Rs have a front row lockout for the opening round of the 2024 season at Daytona this weekend, while the WEC chassis is currently being seafreighted from the European base of Ganassi in Germany to Qatar for the WEC Prologue next month .
The story originally appeared on Racer