Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber share the drive of the Cadillac V-Series.R in both WEC and IMSA. Speaking exclusively to Motorsport Week, both drivers highlighted the differences between the championships as well as their dynamic as teammates.
“We have a really good relationship off the track, which helps a lot, and we get to spend a lot of time together,” explained Aitken, who is a rookie in the World Endurance Championship.
Bamber and Aitken drove the #31 Whelen Cadillac together in IMSA last season, while it was only Bamber who also simultaneously competed in WEC as well. For this season, Aitken replaced Jenson Button in the #38 Hertz Team JOTA entry, teaming up with Bamber in WEC as well, while continuing their strong Whelen programme in IMSA.
“So you definitely get to learn the little tendencies of each person and their strengths, their weaknesses, how they like the car, what they really mean behind the words.
“That makes things easier for sure, so it’s good. It’s not something that you can really plan because at the end we get told where to race and who’s going to be our teammates, but yeah, it’s working really well for us,” said Aitken.
Earl Bamber highlighted their friendship off track when speaking about Aitken: “We have a really good time. You know we joke around a lot as well, which is important to be able to have that level of fun versus seriousness all the time.
“It’s been really good. I think, obviously, the continuity, having the same drivers in both cars, not only for the teams but for us as drivers, it’s been really good. I think we work really well together.
We’ve had a lot of success in IMSA already. Unfortunately, Jack didn’t get to do his first laps at Spa with obviously our failure, but you know this week he’s already super quick as well, so we can’t wait to get into it, get stuck in and have a good Le Mans.”
Same car but different racing
On the technical side, there are no differences between the LMDh car in WEC and IMSA: “Technically, the cars are the same. You know we have the same people from Cadillac that were for us last week in Detroit here. So most people left Sunday night straight out here.
“So technically the cars are the same, which was different last year. They were different with a slight difference at Euro-kit. Now all cars are alined around the world, which is actually a really good step,” explained Earl Bamber, who helped with the development of the V-Series.R.
For Aitken, the visible difference is the racing aspect, speaking about Spa-Francorchamps: “I think the biggest difference is that the style of tracks is quite a lot different. It’s very much your typical Grand Prix track. Wide, fast flying, whereas the American circuits are a bit more old school, a bit more up and down and bumpy and all over the place.
It’s still the same car, so that was familiar. Nothing really changed. I know these guys already quite a bit.”
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