Button and Bourdais headline six-strong Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA crew
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA has revealed the all-star line-up that will pilot its pair of V-Series.R Hypercars in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2025, as motorsport legends Jenson Button and Sébastien Buemi head up a talented and experienced sextet.
It was announced during the summer that Cadillac Racing would double up its factory WEC effort next year, as per the series’ regulations, and that the American manufacturer would join forces with Hertz Team JOTA for its third season at the championship’s highest level.
The British outfit successfully defended its FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams title in 2024 – simultaneously claiming an historic first overall victory for a private entrant in WEC’s headlining Hypercar division at Spa-Francorchamps – while the third-generation Cadillac V-Series.R prototype demonstrated its potential with pole position at Fuji and further front row starts at Spa and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Button will be embarking upon his second full campaign of WEC competition, with fellow Hertz Team JOTA drivers Norman Nato and Will Stevens also remaining on-board, the latter fresh from a standout performance in the Bahrain season finale earlier this month that at one stage looked set to secure the squad a second series triumph.
“I’m delighted to be continuing my journey with Hertz Team JOTA as it forms a new partnership with such an iconic brand as Cadillac,” commented 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Button. “Racing with JOTA this season has been a privilege, as it’s a team steeped in success in endurance racing and is an operation I’ve long admired.
“Those achievements and hard work have now led to this exciting next chapter with Cadillac, a marque that has already impressed with what it has achieved to-date in both WEC and IMSA. The driver line-up is pretty impressive. We bring together our collective experience of working with the Cadillac platform and the experience of working with JOTA. We have all the ingredients for a great season ahead.”
Incumbent Cadillac Racing team-mates Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber are similarly part of the picture – for a third consecutive campaign – while four-time Champ Car Champion Bourdais co-drove the V-Series.R in three WEC races and the full IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2024, winning twice in the US.
“A new challenge, a new team and I’m thankful to be part of a new adventure,” enthused the Frenchman. “JOTA has been a well-known and successful name in sportscar racing in Europe for many years. The push that Cadillac is making with two cars and going with JOTA shows its commitment to endurance racing and to being successful in WEC.
“We’re going to get to work quickly, and there’s a continuity in the whole process as well as a lot of cross-experiences. For me, it’s a known quantity with the car and the GM people, and we’ll be bringing different experiences to pair with what they’ve done with the Porsche to optimise the package. We showed speed this season but not the results we wanted, so I’ll be working hard to get those in 2025.”
The exact composition of the #12 and #38 crews will be announced at a later date, with the global, eight-round WEC schedule due to begin in Qatar on 28 February and conclude on 8 November in Bahrain. The series’ jewel in the crown – the 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans – will take place on 14-15 June. Both JOTA Sport and Cadillac Racing have achieved success at La Sarthe in the past, respectively reaching the rostrum outright in 2017 and 2023.
