Cadillac is working hard to improve its understanding of the new Michelin tyres
Coming into the second round of the World Endurance Championship at Spa, Cadillac knew it would be on the back foot.
It struggled for outright pace at the 6 Hours of Imola, ending up eighth and 13th at the chequered flag, and the team is hoping it can put on an improved showing at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
But there’s one element that could hinder its progress - temperatures.
Speaking to The Pit Stop Endurance after practice at Imola Sebastien Bourdais explained that the Cadillac V-Series R really struggles to get temperature into the tyres, and with temperatures on the chilly side at Spa for this weekend, things could be tough once again.
Michelin has brought new tyres to the championship for 2026, and speaking exclusively to The Pit Stop Endurance at Spa Cadillac chief engineer Jeromy Moore said that the team is still learning how to get its tyres into the perfect operating window.
“I think the temperature windows and the crossovers are the biggest things we're learning about,” he said.
“We've suffered a little bit, or historically we've suffered to warm our tyres up as well as other teams. And that's sort of still intrinsically in our cars that sometimes we're kind on the tyres. We can't generate temperature to get the harder or the medium to work.
“So here on the soft, I think the soft works pretty well on our cars, and if it gets too hot then we've got to transition to the medium.
“So it really depends on what weather we have. It's the same for everyone. You see some teams which can run the soft in Imola, some made it work, some didn't, whereas some were on the medium the whole time, or some had half and half.”
Moore added that Cadillac didn’t suffer as much with tyre temperatures last season, but there are areas where it has been able to improve.
“The old tyre, not so much,” was Moore’s response when asked if Cadillac suffered in the same way on the old tyres.
“I think the medium was slightly different than what it is now.
“We did suffer warm-up still. I think it's clear that we lost time out of the pits versus Porsche, for example.
“So, it's something we have been working to improve, I think we've improved.
“The tyre certainly helped on the warm-up side, and has helped us come along with both compounds. Yeah, the soft is really good out of the pits, and the medium is certainly better than what it was.”
After practice for the 6 Hours of Spa it is clear the team still has plenty of work to do though. The fastest car was the No38 machine driven by Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais and Jack Aitken and it only ended up 12th fastest in FP2, with the sister No12 car 16th.
Coming into the second round of the World Endurance Championship at Spa, Cadillac knew it would be on the back foot.
It struggled for outright pace at the 6 Hours of Imola, ending up eighth and 13th at the chequered flag, and the team is hoping it can put on an improved showing at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
But there’s one element that could hinder its progress - temperatures.
Speaking to The Pit Stop Endurance after practice at Imola Sebastien Bourdais explained that the Cadillac V-Series R really struggles to get temperature into the tyres, and with temperatures on the chilly side at Spa for this weekend, things could be tough once again.
Michelin has brought new tyres to the championship for 2026, and speaking exclusively to The Pit Stop Endurance at Spa Cadillac chief engineer Jeromy Moore said that the team is still learning how to get its tyres into the perfect operating window.
“I think the temperature windows and the crossovers are the biggest things we're learning about,” he said.
“We've suffered a little bit, or historically we've suffered to warm our tyres up as well as other teams. And that's sort of still intrinsically in our cars that sometimes we're kind on the tyres. We can't generate temperature to get the harder or the medium to work.
“So here on the soft, I think the soft works pretty well on our cars, and if it gets too hot then we've got to transition to the medium.
“So it really depends on what weather we have. It's the same for everyone. You see some teams which can run the soft in Imola, some made it work, some didn't, whereas some were on the medium the whole time, or some had half and half.”
Moore added that Cadillac didn’t suffer as much with tyre temperatures last season, but there are areas where it has been able to improve.
“The old tyre, not so much,” was Moore’s response when asked if Cadillac suffered in the same way on the old tyres.
“I think the medium was slightly different than what it is now.
“We did suffer warm-up still. I think it's clear that we lost time out of the pits versus Porsche, for example.
“So, it's something we have been working to improve, I think we've improved.
“The tyre certainly helped on the warm-up side, and has helped us come along with both compounds. Yeah, the soft is really good out of the pits, and the medium is certainly better than what it was.”
After practice for the 6 Hours of Spa it is clear the team still has plenty of work to do though. The fastest car was the No38 machine driven by Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais and Jack Aitken and it only ended up 12th fastest in FP2, with the sister No12 car 16th.
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