Sébastien Bourdais: “Excellent memories of Long Beach”

Cadillac won a lively Long Beach edition in 2022. Starting from pole position, Sébastien's No. 01 Bourdais and Renger van Zande crossed the finish line as the winner ahead of the No. 02 of Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn despite an accident at the start of the race for the Frenchman.

« I have great memories of Long Beach; it's a place that has been very good to me in the past and where I have always enjoyed running, remembers Bourdais. It was quite an interesting weekend (In 2022). The first practice session was a bit difficult, but John (Hennek) gave us a great car from the second session onwards, and I set my best time of the year. The car was simply amazing. Our Cadillac DPi was on rails and it started qualifying with a new track record, then it won the race in a very unorthodox way. I was surprised by a GT in the hairpin and I understood too late that the DPi did not have the radius of curvature at which theIndyCar was used to it: I ran out of space and got stuck in the wall on the way out. It was quite early in the race, we had to and had to overcome a delay of 20 seconds or something like that, overtake all our competitors to get back into the lead. Nevertheless, the car was very good that day and I managed to take the victory, which was incredible. It was a great weekend and a great day for Cadillac and Chip Ganassi Racing. »

Undefeated since 2017 on the streets of California, will Cadillac be able to continue its momentum with the new generation of prototypes? At Daytona, the American manufacturer's V-Series.R suffered from the Acura's rule and if victory smiled on the No. 31 from Action Express Racing at Sebring, it was due to the chaos that occurred 15 minutes from time. As for the No. 01 of Sébastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande, it was forced to retire after the ninth hour of the race while the Manceau had taken the lead in the event.

« Obviously, 2023 is a big reset, Justice Bourdais. Nous avons été très forts toute la journée à Sebring, mais il semble que la Porsche et l’Acura aient été meilleures en fin de course. Notre voiture a semblé prendre vie à partir de la mi-course. Et elle passe très bien de Sebring à Long Beach. La Cadillac a toujours été considérée comme la voiture à battre à Sebring et sur les circuits urbains. C’est une voiture qui n’était pas très sensible à la hauteur de caisse. Je ne pense pas que nous verrons un monstre du circuit routier contre un monstre du circuit en ville, où ils finissent par être sur des spectres complètement différents, ce qui a rendu très difficile l’équilibre de la série en termes de performance. Je pense que tout sera plus ouvert et j’espère que nous serons du bon côté de la barrière à chaque événement. »

In case of victory, this would be Sébastien Bourdais' fifth success at Long Beach after last year and three in CART (2005, 2006, 2007). This year again, the round ofIMSA will take place on Saturday April 15 as a support race for the IndyCar race scheduled for Sunday April 16.

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