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Detroit v Ferrari: Four Cadillac Hypercars lead Motown assault on 2025 Le Mans
Posted by Talbot Payne on March 4, 2025
Cadillac is named after Detroit founder and French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. Now his namesake is leading a Detroit onslaught on France’s greatest auto race.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race has accepted four entries from Cadillac Racing, the biggest squadron (along with Porsche) of any automaker in the top-drawer Hypercar class. The thundering, V-8-powered V-Series.R models will headline a 21-Hypercar field that includes the Porsche quartet (three entered by Bloomfield Hills-based Team Penske), three entries from defending champion Ferrari, two Toyotas, two Aston Martins and a pair of BMWs.
The Caddy onslaught on the world’s premier endurance race comes as the brand has raised its profile internationally as an electrified automaker (the Le Mans cars are gas-electric hybrids) — including a flagship store in Paris just over two hours from the famed French racetrack that touts Cadillac’s Lyriq and Optiq EVs.
Cadillac Racing has entered four cars for the 2025 Le Mans race in France. Cadillac, Cadillac
The Cadillac effort hopes to build on competitive, three-car entries in 2023 and 2024. With speeds cresting 200 mph around the 8.5-mile track, the #2 car entered by Chip Ganassi Racing last year secured an all-Detroit front row in qualifying next to the pole-sitting, #6 Porsche Penske entry and led 61 of 311 laps before settling for seventh place. Cadillac returned to Le Mans in 2023 for the first time in over 20 years and scored a third-place podium finish.
Determined to win the one race that has eluded its beloved “Captain,” Roger Penske, Team Penske is back this year after a fourth-place finish in the soggy 2024 event. In the production-based GT class (62 cars are entered over three classes: Hypercar, LMP2 and GT), Chevrolet and Ford will carry the Motown flag into battel. Chevy is supporting three V-8-powered Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R racers prepared by TF Sport and AWA Racing, while Ford has entered two Mustang LMGT3 V-8s with Proton Racing.
The #311 Cadillac V-Series.R on track during last year’s 24 Hours of LeMans. Cadillac is entering four cars in this year’s race. Chris DuMond, Special To The Detroit News
That’s a lot of Detroit thunder.
“We’re thrilled to have Cadillac Racing return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with four cars competing for the overall win in the Hypercar class,” said Global Cadillac Vice President John Roth. “After scoring our first podium finish at this iconic endurance race in 2023 and securing a Top 10 finish last year, we look to build on that success and showcase the Cadillac V-Series.R’s technology, performance and innovation.”
This year’s Le Mans marks 75 years since Caddy first entered Le Mans’ so-called Circuit de la Sarthe in 1950 with the #2 and #3 Cadillac Series 61 coupes. The #2 car, which finished 11th, was of particular note for its radical, aerodynamic shape, which the French dubbed Le Monstre — “The Monster.”
24 Hours of Le Mans 2024: The #2 Cadillac V-Series.R finished 7th, giving the GM brand a second straight top-10 finish. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
Last year’s #2 Ganassi Racing V-Series.R played homage to that car with IndyCar champion and Ganassi Racing’s Alex Plaou at the wheel along with Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn, who qualified the Caddy on Row One.
Palou isn’t returning this year as Ganassi Racing is handing its two works team entries over to Hertz Team Jota Racing, which represents Cadillac in the international World Endurance Racing series. But the driving team is still formidable. Lynn will pilot the #12 car along with Formula E driver Norman Nato and ex-Formula One ace Will Stevens. The #38 Team Jota car will put Bamber at the reins along with ex-F1 superstar Jenson Button and former IndyCar ace Sebastien Bourdais.
Ford will take on rivals including Porsche Penske, which fielded this #6 Porsche 963 last year at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. Chris DuMond, Special To The Detroit News
Last year, Hertz Jota entered a pair of Porsche 963 Hypercars and finished eighth and 10th.
The other pair of V-Series.R prototypes will be entered by Cadillac’s North American teams that race in the Weathertech IMSA (International Motor Sports Association). The #101 car will be entered by Wayne Taylor Racing, which will compete at the 24-hour classic for the first time. The Taylor family is well-known in sportscar racing and team principal Wayne’s sons, Jordan and Ricky, will be at the wheel along with veteran Portuguese driver Felipe Albuquerque.
“It has always been our plan to go to Le Mans with a shot at the overall win,” said Papa Taylor. “When I was there with Cadillac in 2002, I was driving, and both my kids were there as spectators. Now, 20 years later, they are here driving for me with Cadillac. I believe we now have the car to beat.”
A Ford Mustang LMGT3 alternately driven by Giorgio Roda (ITA), Mikkel Pedersen (DNK), and Dennis Olsen (NOR), runs practice laps at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in Le Mans, France on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. Ford has entered two Mustang LMGT3 V-8s with Proton Racing in this year’s race. Chris DuMond, Special To The Detroit News
The #311 Whelan Cadillac V-Series.R entry will be back at Le Mans for the third straight year with Action Express Racing. Brit Jack Aitken will share duties with Brazilian Felipe Drugovich and Dane Frederik Vesti.
The three Porsche Penske entries return this year with a similar driver lineup to ‘24, including 2024 IMSA champion Felipe Nasar of Brazil in the #4 entry and Frenchman Kevin Estre in the #6 car that he put on the pole last year.
The Corvette entries hope to improve on last year’s 11th and 15th place result for TF Sport while Mustang hopes to ascend to the top of the podium after an impressive third-place finish in its 2024 debut.
Ford also has its eyes on the Hypercar class with an entry planned for 2027 to rekindle the rivalry immortalized in the Oscar-winning movie “Ford v Ferrari.”
24 Hours of Le Mans 2024: Fans check out the Cadillac Optiq EV at the Cadillac display inside the track. The GM luxury brand hopes its race entries will attract buyers for the compact electric SUV. Henry Payne, The Detroit News
Cadillac’s push at Le Mans is part of its effort to enter the European market as an EV maker and its Lyriq and Optiq production EVs will likely be on display in the Le Mans paddock for fans to ogle.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same. The V-Series.R Hypercars will be powered by a 5.5-liter V-8 engine. Seventy-five years ago, Caddy’s Le Monstre was powered by a 5.4-liter V-8.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.