Jenson Button will stay with the British Jota squad within the World Endurance Championship on its commencement to the manufacturing facility ranks with Cadillac subsequent season.
The 2009 System 1 world champion will transfer over with Jota from Porsche to Cadillac to drive certainly one of two V-Sequence LMDhs to be fielded by the group within the Hypercar class.
A second full season within the WEC for 44-year-old Button was confirmed on Thursday when the total driver roster was introduced for the Cadillac Hertz Workforce Jota entries.
Will Stevens and Norman Nato have joined Button in switching from Jota’s two-car squad of buyer Porsche 963 LMDhs.
Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn will proceed with Cadillac at Jota within the WEC after two years racing the Normal Motors model’s solo Hypercar entry run by Chip Ganassi Racing
Sebastien Bourdais additionally makes the transfer from Ganassi, with which he has been a full-season common within the IMSA SportsCar Championship since 2022 after calling time on his IndyCar profession.
Cadillac Racing driver line up
Photograph by: Richard Prince
He’s switching sequence having raced alongside Bamber and Lynn within the Qatar and Bahrain WEC rounds initially and finish of this 12 months’s marketing campaign.
Will probably be the primary full-time programme outdoors of North America for the Frenchman since his season and a half in F1 with Toro Rosso in 2008-09.
Bourdais won’t stay with Cadillac in IMSA’s GTP class subsequent 12 months, however will keep within the sequence after signing a cope with Tower Motorsport to race within the LMP2 division.
Cadillac and Jota have but to disclose the motive force combos for its two WEC entries, which is able to retain the #12 and #38 race numbers from the Porsche programme.
Bamber may also be competing for Cadillac in IMSA subsequent 12 months with Motion Categorical Racing, however it’s anticipated that the Jota programme will take priority on the conflict between the Spa and Laguna Seca races in Could and on the Le Mans 24 Hours ought to the American group contest the WEC double-points spherical for a 3rd 12 months in succession.
Button was extensively anticipated to stick with Jota having revealed in the beginning of the season that he noticed his time in Hypercar as a two-year enterprise.
He had, nevertheless, refused to verify his plans and whether or not he would proceed racing forward of the announcement on Thursday.
Button mentioned: “I’m delighted to be persevering with my journey with Hertz Workforce Jota as they type their new partnership with such an iconic model as Cadillac.
“Racing with Jota this season has been such a privilege as they’re a group steeped in success in endurance racing and an operation I’ve lengthy admired.
“These achievements and arduous work have now led to this thrilling subsequent chapter seeing them companion with Cadillac, a marque which has already impressed with what it has achieved up to now in each WEC and IMSA.
#38 Hertz Workforce Jota Porsche 963: Jenson Button, Philip Hanson, Oliver Rasmussen
Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Photos
“The driving force line-up is fairly spectacular: we convey our collective expertise of working with the Cadillac platform and the expertise of working with Jota collectively.
“Now we have all of the elements for an amazing season forward.”
Jota director David Clark acknowledged: “Cadillac’s pedigree in motorsport speaks for itself, and with these six drivers we can be in a robust place to problem for race wins.”
Bourdais, 45, mentioned he was “grateful to be a part of this new journey”, including: “It is a identified amount with the automotive and the GM folks, so it’s cool to have the ability to proceed there.”
Stevens, who took victory within the #12 Jota Porsche in final Could’s WEC spherical at Spa, is constant a relationship that stretches again to 2016.
The Briton has been a fixture with the group since successful the WEC P2 crown in 2022, saying: “I’ve made no secret of my intention to be with Jota for the lengthy haul and to do that with Cadillac makes it much more particular.”
Cadillac is upscaling its WEC assault this season consistent with a brand new rule mandating two-car entries for producer groups competing in Hypercar.
Ganassi fielded just one automotive within the WEC in 2023 and 2024: its two-car IMSA assault of 2022 with the DPi-V.R Daytona Prototype worldwide was successfully break up in half in the beginning of the Hypercar period, with one automotive racing on the earth championship and one in North America.
It unilaterally introduced in March that its relationship with Cadillac would come to an finish on the conclusion of this 12 months’s WEC and IMSA campaigns.
Ganassi ran Bamber and Lynn as a duo within the six-hour WEC races this 12 months, however Jota all the time meant to stay with three drivers on its change to Cadillac.
Workforce boss Sam Hignett has pressured the significance of racing with the identical line-up as at Le Mans in all WEC occasions.
Jota will shake down its V-Sequence.R chassis on the Anneau du Rhin circuit near the German border in northern France subsequent week.
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