Bourdais' Cadillac goodbye hasn't sunk in yet

Sébastien Bourdais admits it still hasn't sunk in that Sunday's 6 Hours of Monza will mark his final FIA World Endurance Championship start with Cadillac, with the 47-year-old, like Alex Lynn, set to leave the JOTA-run factory team after this season.

"I've had plenty of time to think about it, and at the end of the day you have to approach it like it's just another race weekend. Same goals every time, just to try and do the best we can given whatever performance level we will have this weekend," he told RACER.

"There's no high or low limits as far as results; it's just do the best that's achievable, and if it's a podium or a win it'd be really cool to finish on the high, but ultimately you just do the job and try and give yourself a chance to win."

Of his 15 previous outings with Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA over the past two seasons, Bourdais identifies this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans as the standout moment. Alongside Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber, he fought for overall victory during the opening half of the race before power steering problems eliminated the No. 38 Cadillac from contention.

"The high point was definitely our Le Mans weekend this year, where we were very competitive," Bourdais said.

"To be able to lead Le Mans again and feel like you have a proper shot at overall victory, it was a really cool moment. If you had told me that five years ago, I wouldn't have thought it would happen because you need to be in the position. It's not about your abilities. A lot of things need to happen and come together for you to be in that situation.

"It's too bad that it didn't go to the end, but for the first 12 hours, it was really fun! It's felt like things were starting to really come together and gel this year with Jack and Earl, and that makes it a little bit more bittersweet to not continue."

In retrospect, the retirement at Le Mans could be considered the moment the No. 38 Cadillac's drivers' championship challenge slipped away.

The car has not finished outside the top five since, however, meaning Bourdais and full-season co-driver Bamber remain in contention to finish third in the 2026 standings despite scoring zero points at the championship's blue-ribbon, double-points event.

"To win the championship, you don't need to be a winning contender every weekend," Bourdais explained.

"You just need to do better than the others over the whole season. Sometimes it's difficult to identify exactly how much you need to do to be able to be there, but in the last four races we're amongst the best that anybody managed to do as far as points. If you have a strong Le Mans on top of that, then instantly you become a really strong championship contender."

Bourdais currently has no confirmed full-season drive for 2027, although discussions are ongoing with several parties regarding potential programs.

Whether he can secure another top-class seat remains to be seen, particularly with the sportscar driver market increasingly competitive. The LMP2 ranks are stacked with up-and-coming talent, Alpine and Acura's programs are coming to an end, and the driver line-ups for McLaren and Ford's new projects have already been established.

"There's a few different people that we're talking with," he stated. "Nothing to the point where there's a contract on the table, but there's interest, so we'll see. Whether it's GT, LMP2 or Hypercar, all I want to do is drive in a program where someone wants me to drive their car."

The Frenchman – like his longtime friend and race engineer Craig Hampson, who coincidentally is stepping back from his demanding role at Andretti Global this year – recognizes that he is entering the latter stages of his professional career.

The current FIA Driver Categorization system will also make securing top-level opportunities increasingly difficult going forward. Recent changes to the rules governing when professional drivers are downgraded mean Bourdais will retain Platinum status until he turns 55, before moving to Gold, with Silver status not coming until he reaches 60.

"My window of being a professional race car driver is not going to be extremely long," he admitted. "I'm unfortunately platinum and getting closer to 50 years old. The platinum side isn't going to change until I'm 55, and even then, I'll be gold, so nothing will change.

"Unfortunately, for guys like me, the categorization kind of puts you into retirement. Emmanuel Collard turned 50 and became silver [before the rule changes], which would be really cool, but unfortunately that's not my reality."

Despite those challenges, Bourdais, whose CV is stacked with major honors, including four Champ Car titles, two seasons of F1 and endurance wins at Le Mans, Daytona, Sebring, Petit Le Mans and the Spa 24 Hours, has no intention of calling time on his career any time soon.

"There's nothing that gives me the same feeling that a race car does," he declared.

"It's still what I enjoy the most doing. I know it's not gonna last another 10 years, and when it's over, there's no coming back, so I'm not in any kind of hurry to see it disappear. I have plenty of time to enjoy retirement, but there's nothing that I enjoy more than driving a race car, so I'm just going to keep going for as long as people feel like they want me in the race car."

Ewan Wane also contributed to this story