Bourdais sees Le Mans victory slip away again in 'incredibly cruel' twist

Sebastien Bourdais admitted that he may never get another opportunity at overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans like the one that slipped through his fingertips this weekend.

Bourdais and his Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA co-drivers Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber were among the strong contenders for the win on Saturday night, but fell out of contention early on Sunday morning when their No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R began to suffer from a power steering problem.

The issue proved to be terminal, leaving Bourdais and company to abandon the race after only 16 hours and 218 laps.

“Other than the retirement and that significant failure that, unfortunately, is the dagger in the heart…it’s only positive,” Bourdais remarked, to sum up his 19th Le Mans start.

“We obviously had an amazing car. It was fighting at the front the entire time. My teammates did an amazing job. The team in general executed the way we had to, and we gave ourselves a chance. And that’s all you can ask for at Le Mans.”

It was Bourdais’ fourth time representing Cadillac at Le Mans, his home race. He has a GTE Pro class win with Ford Chip Ganassi Racing in 2016, but the overall and top class victory remains elusive. With Peugeot he finished third overall three times (2007, 2009, and 2011) and fourth twice (2000 with Pescarolo Sport and 2023 with Cadillac/Ganassi).

“Probably (by) 2020 I’d pretty much given up ever getting that chance ever again, and this year, it was there,” he lamented.

“This race has got its ways to humble everything and everyone, and for a maybe two-dollar piece, it just came to a crushing end. I’m not gonna understate it. It’s a big blow.”

Bourdais said that he wouldn’t know if he’d return to race for the overall win at Le Mans next year. He already sacrificed a parallel IMSA LMP2 program with Tower Motorsport this year, to devote more time to his WEC effort with Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA.

At 47, the four-time Champ Car World Series champion, who’s won the three biggest races in IMSA (Daytona 24 Hours, Twelve Hours of Sebring, and Petit Le Mans) now stands as one of the oldest and most experienced drivers in the WEC Hypercar category, one that’s getting younger every year.

“I’m 47 years old. I’m not gonna get many of those opportunities,” Bourdais iterated. “But it’s racing, you know. Michael Andretti’s gone, what, 20 times to the (Indianapolis) 500? And never got it. Some races just decide to turn its back on some guys, and smile at others, it is what it is. You win much fewer than you lose in a racing career.

“And that doesn’t make you a better or worse driver, it’s just part of the journey. And sometimes it’s incredibly cruel.”