| Ahead of the 70th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts on March 19, drivers Sebastien Bourdais (No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R) and Tristan Vautier(No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R) met with the media March 8 via Zoom conference. They co-drove to the overall victory in the 2021 race. Bourdais also co-drove to the overall win in 2015 in a Corvette DP. For this year’s race, they will be competitors. Full transcript (by driver): |
 SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 1 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R):TELL US HOW IT’S SHAPING UP FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE.“Great memories from Sebring. It couldn’t have asked for any better with the result from last year and I’m looking forward to giving it another go. I think it’s a track that I very much enjoy; probably one of the tracks that I enjoy the most out of the whole schedule. We haven’t had exactly the start of the season that we were hoping for, but we were really quick at Daytona in the Cadillac 01 and we can only hope that we turn the tables around and get a little bit better success on track and keep executing and results will follow.” YOU’RE FOCUSING ON A 12-HOUR. WAS THAT YOUR DECISION OR SOMETHING THAT (THE TEAM) WAS SUGGESTING YOU DO INSTEAD OF ALSO UNDERTAKING THE WEC RACE?“It was a Cadillac call, which I totally understand. If the 1,000 miles was after the 12 hours, that would have been a different story. The team was basically not super comfortable with me doing a 1,000-mile race before the 12 hours.” YOU’VE DONE A LOT OF MILES AT SEBRING, AND THE BUMPS ARE WHAT DEFINE THE TRACK. DO YOU THINK THE CADILLAC DOES A BETTER JOB OF HANDLING THE BUMPS THAT SOME OF THE OTHER PROTOTYPES?“There is no arguing that. Now it’s a two-manufacturer battle between Cadillac and Acura, but even when it was Mazda it’s pretty clear that Cadillac with the Dallara chassis has better characteristics for bumpy tracks. It’s a car that is less ride-sensitive than the competitors. We can see that we can run a bit softer, which at a place like Sebring is very beneficial. The drawback of that is the car doesn’t really have a big peak in downforce and therefore and is less sited to tracks where you can run low and stiff. It’s a balance, but obviously it’s won quite a few championships since 2017, so it seems to be working out pretty good.” TALK US THORUGH THE END OF THAT RACE LAST YEAR. WHAT TOOLS DO YOU HAVE IN THE CAR; WHAT DID YOU HAVE TO DO TO HANG ON AND BRING IT HOME?“I didn’t have a whole lot of time to figure out what was going on. Initially, I thought the front bar broke and I stiffened it up all the way and that helped. Full stiff front bar and full soft rear bar and I think 3 percent of full brakes to the front and just hang on. That’s pretty much all there was to do. It was far from ideal, but I was really quick in the straights. As long as I was not getting passed in the corner, it was pretty hard to get past.” HOW MUCH COMPROMISE DO YOU HAVE? DO YOU TYPICALLY SET UP THE RACE CAR FOR THE HEAT OF THE DAY AND COME GOOD FOR THOSE FINAL THREE HOURS?“I think everybody shoots for the end of the race. That’s when it’s go time. Usually you always have a two, three or one hour to the end to the last yellow and that’s when everybody is nose to tail. You obviously want track position, but you need to be in a strong position with the balance of the car. You can’t hope to win the race if you’re really struggling. If you’re going to be struggling, it’s going to be in the middle of the afternoon. You can always play a little bit with tire pressures and this and that, but it’s usually what you’re not shooting for. You’re shooting for the end of the race.” WITH THIS EVOLUTION (HELPING INDYCAR ROOKIE DRVER KYLE KIRKWOOD) HOW DO YOU FEEL THIS HELPS YOU RACING IN PROTOTPES AND HOW WOULD IT HELP YOU IN SEBRING?“I think it’s two separate things. I live in St. Pete (first INDYCAR race of season) and Kyle is a really good kid and was jumping in that 14 car and we were talking after Daytona and I said it you want me to be there I can try to be another set |