"Lots of good things to take to Le Mans" — Cadillac JOTA reflects after a challenging 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

The second round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) was a challenging weekend for Cadillac Team JOTA after qualifying on the front row.

The No.12 V-Series.R during the 2026 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps | Credit: Noah Romana

The No.12 car was the leading Cadillac car by qualifying second behind the No.94 Peugeot 9X8. The first stint of the race featured Will Stevens in the No.12 and Earl Bamber in the No.38 sister car, after qualifying fifth on the grid.

Stevens moved to the lead on the opening lap and settled into a strong, controlled stint. However, the stewards penalised the No.12 car for overtaking track limits. Five seconds were added to their next pit stop, which dropped them down the field and mostly fighting dirty air, before finishing ninth after six hours.

Around 43 minutes into the race, Bamber collided with the No.92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R at around Turn 13 while busy evading LMGT3 traffic. The New Zealander had to nurse the punctured car. The car returned to the track before ultimately retiring due to loss of drive.

Jeromy Moore, Chief Engineer Cadillac Racing, reflected on a challenging race for the team: "We had good pace at the start, taking the lead with the No.12 car, showing good signs of performance and a good race outcome.

"However, we struggled a bit with the tyre degradation in the double stint and later had a retirement with the No.38. We took a risky strategy with the No.12 on the soft tyres to try and get position back.

"It didn’t pay off on this occasion, but we had a strong qualifying and we showed good performance in the high-speed corners and on the straights, so there are a lot of good things to take with us to Le Mans."

The No.38 car retired after a contact with a Porsche LMGT3 car | Credit: Noah Romana

No.12's Norman Nato said: "The start of the race was good, but from the middle of the race onwards we started to drop back [in] position.

"It’s not the race we expected, but there are a lot of learnings for Le Mans and a lot of positives to take away, despite the result."

No.38's Sébastien Bourdais said: "It was one of those weekends when everything seemed to be under control.

"The car was strong, the balance felt good, we had solid qualifying for both cars, so it was tough to have the retirement. Despite this, there’s a lot to take from the weekend, and we will come back stronger in Le Mans."

After the conclusion of the second round, Cadillac currently sit seventh in the Hypercar Manufacturers' Championship with eight points, just ahead of Genesis, which scored six points in Spa alone.