Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA made the switch from being a Porsche privateer to being full works team for Cadillac prior to the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season.
That meant a change in the driver lineup, with some Cadillac factory drivers from the previous programme with Chip Ganassi Racing being added into the mix, while half of the 2024 JOTA lineup was maintained.
One of the drivers continuing with the team is Jenson Button. The 2009 Formula 1 World Champion appears to have found his happy place, after competing in several championships, including winning the 2018 Japanese Super GT title.
Racing24-7.net caught up with the Briton, to talk a bit about the transition into the sportscar side of racing.
You are one of the few drivers, who has driven three different types of LMDh cars. Is it difficult to convert from one system to another?
“Yeah, so when you understand how complex they are, from just driving one, the systems are mind blowing – how many systems there are. We can adjust corner to corner. Personally, I think it’s too much. You know, I think it does take away from the driving a little bit. But it is what it is. You need to learn them, or else you are on the back foot, because there are things that can really help, how the car feels, and the car setup. So yeah, when you have learned one, and suddenly have to move to another team… When I drove for Acura, I had no time in the car – because I was the fourth driver. And you get no time in practice, so learning everything was like – I got in the race, and I was like – I can’t remember what does that, or that. And they’re telling me to do stuff… so yeah, that wasn’t easy. But you know, once you get to grips with the Porsche last year was fine, and then after a few runs in this car, I think everything is very self explanatory on the steering wheel. It’s a little bit easier – also because we are a works team. If you don’t like something, we can change it. Whereas last year, it was – No chance! So this year it’s nice to be in that situation. Every race, we have slightly tweaked things, so that it’s easier.”
Things like button functions or?
“Yeah, very easy to understand, but also very quick for us to adjust things, and the feedback we get from the engineers. This race is important, but it’s also like a practice run before Le Mans, if you know what I mean. To make sure that we are ready in every way, being ready for every scenario at Le Mans. That is what this team is very good about in the past, and that is why they have won so many times in LMP2 – it’s being prepared for every scenario. And then obviously, we need a quick car, so it’s about fine tuning of that. Cadillac was fast last year, so hopefully we can be a little bit quicker.”
Photo: JJ Media
Would you say that the LMDh hybrid system is more complex that the F1 at the moment, or different directions?
“I think we got more controllability as drivers. There is so much that we can do, it’s insane – it’s crazy! For me in my 40’s, learning stuff like that, it definitely takes longer than when I was in my 20’s. At some point in practice, my engineer was talking to me every lap, every straight. And I was like – guys, leave me alone! I just need to drive the car, and get a feel for it. I’ve not driven here since last year. Let me get a feel for it, and then we can discuss about changing things. So yeah, sometimes it’s a little bit too much communication flying around. Sometimes you just want it simple, so that you can get a feel, and then you can start adjusting by yourself.”
You have had both good and bad memories from Spa Francorchamps over your career. There has been a few podiums, but also a few Lap 1 incidents.
“Yeah, when I was at Brawn. My first top-3 qualifying was here in F1, in 2000. My most dominant victory was here in 2012. I was leading in Formula Ford in 1998, spun off. So I’ve had all over the place, but I’ve always enjoyed this track. Last year wasn’t great for us. We obviously had a crash in our first stint, so I never drove, so I haven’t really done that many laps around here. So I’m hoping that we can improve our balance. At the moment we are a little bit off where we wanna be, but I think that by FP3 we will find out where we are. We are just doing different things right now, bringing it all together for FP3. I really wanna have good race weekend. It’s been a bit of a messy year so far, but the pace is there, so if we can extract it…”
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA #38, that Jenson Button shares with Earl Bamber and Sebastien Bourdais, was P16 in FP1, and P13 in FP2, while the sister car #12 with Norman Nato, Will Stevens and Alex Lynn was 7th and 4th respectively.
Free Practice 3 ahead of the 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps will be run today at 11.00 CET, and you can follow it all live and free on YouTube from 10.50.
