Sébastien Bourdais is back at Le Mans this weekend for his 19th start at the 24-hour classic, this time piloting the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota V-Series.R alongside Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken. For the French driver, the race is a homecoming. He was born and raised near the circuit, grew up watching cars brake into Mulsanne corner with glowing discs visible from outside the fence, and has logged 18 prior Le Mans starts with a class win and three second-place overall finishes.
The personal connection runs deeper than most drivers carry to a single event. Bourdais attended his first Le Mans at age five. His father raced until 2007, and the two competed at the race in different cars one year. His parents still attend World Endurance Championship rounds. “I’m an only child so we’ve always been quite close, and racing is definitely something we share,” Bourdais said in a pre-race interview. “You lose more than you win in racing even if you have an amazing career, but we’ve had a lot of very good memories to celebrate.”
Bourdais has raced at three of the sport’s iconic venues: Le Mans, the Monaco Grand Prix, and the Indianapolis 500. He attributes their status to history rather than spectacle. “A history of the greatest drivers, teams and cars and that’s what builds legacies and legends,” he said. “For me, Le Mans represents more than any other because I grew up there and raced there many times.”
His greatest achievement remains the four consecutive Champ Car titles he won in the mid-2000s. Bourdais cited 31 wins and poles in 73 races, a stretch of dominance he described as “the one thing in my career that properly stands out.” He credited the fit between his driving style and the car, and the team cohesion that sustained the run. “It was just a perfect formula for my driving style and that will definitely remain the greatest time of my career.”
Preparation for Le Mans follows the same process Cadillac Racing applies to every WEC round, Bourdais said, though the 24-hour runtime allows more track time. Between the previous round at Spa and this weekend’s race, the team ran a two-day test at Silverstone, followed by simulator work in Indianapolis. “The work never really stops,” he said. The longer race week demands more spares and personnel for the technical team, but Bourdais does not alter his physical preparation. “That race is more about fatigue management more than the physicality itself.”
Whether this is the year Bourdais adds an overall Le Mans win to the class victory already on his résumé is the question the next 24 hours will answer.
Source: Cadillac. Images courtesy of Cadillac.
