Earl Bamber: “We are on the edge to be in front of them”
Earl Bamber, between a GT3 race in Okayama and the next WEC round in Fuji, shares his greatest success and thoughts about Cadillac Racing’s results and outlook in WEC.
CRR: Which was the greatest success of your driver’s career?
EB: “I’ve been quite fortunate I’ve reached many great achievements in my career so far.
The one that stands out the most for me would be Le Mans 2015 because it was a pure race for me with no mistake and a pure pace that we managed to win. The crew was amazing with Nico and Nick, the car was incredible. For me, this stands out as a highlight. 📷 left © Luc Warnotte at 24 Hours of Le Mans 2015: victory for Bamber/Hülkenberg/Tandy with Porsche 919 Hybrid #19.
I would also rate what we did this year at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. It was another great race that we won with pure pace without any mistake. That was super rewarding. 📷 right © Luc Warnotte at 24 Hours of Nürburgring 2023: Victory for Bamber/Catsburg/Pittard/Fernandez-Lazer with Frikadelli Racing #30 Ferrari 296 GT3
Third would be what we did with Cadillac at Le Mans this year. I was the first person to drive the car mid-2022 and working throughout the whole process since mid-2021 on the concept of the car. To finally achieve a podium at Le Mans, from a development and program point of view it is something quite special.
Each of those really rank highly. I have one more left!”
CRR: What do you mean?
EB: “There is a myth: nobody ever has achieved winning the four major endurance races overall. I’m missing Daytona. Same with Nick Tandy.”
CRR: So, it will be for next year.
EB: “Oh yes! (big smile and looking at the sky)”
CRR: After a full season with Porsche LMP Team and winning Le Mans AND the championship in 2017, as Porsche abandoned LMP1, you went back to IMSA in GTLM still with Porsche from 2018 to 2020 (winning the championship in 2019) which Porsche again decided to quit. In 2021, you disappeared from my radar until we saw you back in IMSA for Chip Ganassi Racing at Motul Petit Le Mans in the 01 Cadillac DPi with Renger van der Zande and Scott Dixon, which you ended 5th. I guess, as a man and a driver, after two setbacks that must have been a turnaround in your career and I guess a magic moment for you to be back in a team, for a manufacturer, in IMSA after not being able to fight for a win during almost a year?
EB: “Yes. It was. To be honest, in that period we went through a strange time in the entire world for everybody in 2020 and 2021 in general. There was a strange feeling in our job and our sport not knowing whether racing would continue and even how our lives would look like outside of our sport and industry at that time.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at 24 Hours of Le Mans 2019: P3 for Bamber/Pilet/Tandy with #93 Porsche 911 RSR #93 among 17 LMGTE PRO cars representing 6 different manufacturers.
It was a shame when Porsche stopped the GTLM because honestly, when they stopped LMP1, they asked “what would you like to do?”. I said “I would like to do GTLM or LMGT PRO because I felt that was the last thing on the planet that was very close to LMP1 with confidential tires and car development… It was fantastic racing as we were 17 PRO cars at Le Mans. It was quite magical. And then all those things happened!
Sure, as a driver, you are upset because you want to be at the top level. But there was always the LMDh at the horizon and it was clear with Porsche that I wanted to be part of it. But that was a time of indecisions.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at Road Atlanta 2022 for IMSA tests: Cadillac LMDh development project.
Then Chip Ganassi Racing remembered me from the time we were fighting against each other in GTLM and asked me to join. This was done in about two weeks, and I joined them mid-2021 starting the LMDh development project. It is nice and refreshing to be there. We have a fantastic group of people. Ironically, my race engineer that ran me in my first victory in 2015 and was also part of the project in 2017, is now running the WEC side of Chip Ganassi Racing. It is a full circle, as one of my performance engineers is from a long time ago when I first drove A1GP. It is a very nice group of people; we have a great atmosphere and I really enjoy the move that I made for the fact that I enjoy my racing with that group of people.”
CRR: What about Danielle Shepherd, lead engineer on Ganassi #02 Cadillac, who you acknowledged as making the key member enabling you to win the 12 hours of Sebring with Alex Lynn and Neel Jani?
📷 © Luc Warnotte at 12 Hours of Sebring 2021: Victory for Bamber/Lynn/Jani with Cadillac DPi #02 ahead of two other Cadillac DPi.
EB: “Danielle is still running the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac in IMSA. I had a fantastic season with her in IMSA. We started as a second car and, along with Alex Lynn, we were still learning the DPi. Danielle gave us a fantastic fast car in 2022. It was her first time running the car. She is one of the big talents that Chip Ganassi have hidden in their organization. She was also the performance and simulation engineer of Alex Palou in his first season when he won the Championship.”
CRR: 2022 was a full year in IMSA DPi with Cadillac and now you are back in WEC. If you could choose between an IMSA season and a WEC season, which one would you pick? Why?
EB: “Ooh! Good question! … If you asked me between 2018 and 2021, with a GT head on, I would definitively say IMSA. The style and the racing that I’ve enjoyed this year with WEC, right now with the regulation, I would say WEC. If you see the number of fans and people coming to places like Monza, Le Mans, Spa and Fuji in two weeks’ time is going to be just as big, it is a real fun paddock and environment to be in right now.”
CRR: Part of your fun is also the crowd around!?
📷 © Luc Warnotte at 24 Hours of Le Mans 2023.
EB: “Yes. When you have this kind of atmosphere it is uplifting. When you stood on the grid at Le Mans this year it was quite magical with 100 years of the race comparing to several years ago when the WEC paddock was quite empty. It is very nice to see such an influx of fans and attention in endurance racing. Even Formula One drivers are openly speaking that they want to attend or be in the race of Le Mans. It is great that the line light is changing in endurance racing. I believe there is going to be something like 24 Hypercars (LMH and LMDh) on the grid next year so I think it is somehow like a golden era.”
CRR: I wrote an article about the differences between LMH and LMDh-based cars. Looking at the results, the LMH cars are faster and clinched all pole positions as well as 13 spots of the 15 in the 5 podiums so far. The BoP did not achieve the objective of ensuring the balance between the manufacturers and promoting a tightening of performance in the same window. Do you see a change for the two last races of the season?
📷 © Luc Warnotte at 12 Hours of Sebring and 6 Hours of Portimao 2023.
EB: “If I look at our season, we started very good and were always in the fight for a podium. If we had a perfect race at Sebring and Portimao, we would have been on the podium. But we never converted it. Le Mans was the first where we went through the race, made no mistake, and earned the podium which I feel we should have done in the previous races. It is very competitive now. What is asked to balance these cars is super complex when you get in the details behind smaller margins each team is missing also considering that everyone is making improvements, so I think the FIA is doing a very good job to manage the whole program. Toyota and Ferrari are super quick, but we are not that far away from being able to challenge them.”
CRR: You see yourself being able to fight for a win during the last two races?
EB: “Yes! We have been able to be in the fight in previous races as well, more than what we have shown because what you fail to factor in, and this is the hard thing in BoP, we arrive as a new team in WEC where we are learning the idiosyncrasies of the championship and how to perform at the highest level. We go up against a team like Toyota who are there since 2012, defeated Porsche and kept the same team, the same drivers. In year one, we expect that we should be at the same level of operation, on different levels, like car operation. We leave some potential on the table just through experience.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at 6 Hours of Monza 2023. “we made more of a step forward in Monza”
I would be disappointed if you could beat Toyota in the first race at Sebring. It would be a little bit too easy. That is not the point of BoP. We all need a chance to be in the next race and then it is up to us to maximize our performance. Ironically in the background, as a group of people and organization, from an operational standpoint we made more of a step forward in Monza, even if we didn’t show and had a nightmare in the race, we were only 2 tenth from pole. We are very close on the edge to be in front of them. I think that FIA is doing a good job considering the complexity of the whole thing.
Look at Formula One: a brand-new team would never be 2 tenth from Mercedes or Red Bull the first year.“
Stay tuned for part 2.
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📷 © Luc Warnotte at 6 Hours of Monza 2023: Hypercar race
📷 © Luc Warnotte at 24 Hours of Le Mans 2023: P3 for Bamber/Lynn/ Westbrook with Cadillac V-Series.R #2.
📷 © Luc Warnotte at 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps 2023. Hypercar race
