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Jack Aitken described the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo as a race with mixed emotions for Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA within the FIA World Endurance Championship, noting that issues during pit stops prevented the squad from turning a front-row 1-2 into a victory.
The No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R led the early phase from pole position until Will Stevens encountered a delay at his opening service due to a stubborn wheel nut.
The sister car, No. 38, which Aitken shared with Earl Bamber and Sebastien Bourdais, dropped to third in the opening hour but remained in contention until a wheel lock-up by Bamber as he approached his pit box forced the crew to rebalance the operation and cost around ten seconds.
This sequence shuffled the two Cadillacs back into the pack, handing the advantage to the winning No. 15 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 as the Cadillacs ultimately settled for third and fourth.
“From a team perspective, earning a podium with both cars in the top four is a solid points harvest for the championship, though starting from the front row naturally raises expectations for more,” Aitken reflected to Sportscar365.
“At the outset of the race we looked competitive—even when we slid to third behind the BMW, it seemed we would stay in the mix for a potential victory.”
“But both cars faced complications during the first stop, which sent us well back in the order.”
“We even slipped outside the top ten, yet we managed to fight our way back up to fourth.”
“The race was extremely demanding, with the field tightly bunched. It was evident some crews found pace overnight, and the Ferraris looked quicker in the latter portions of the stint than they did in practice.”
Aitken also noted that the tight, twisty Interlagos layout made the race particularly challenging to manage with traffic and the need to reclaim lost time.
“We observed a lot of interactions between the GTs and Hypercars because the track features numerous left-to-right corners, so vehicles frequently cross each other’s paths and it becomes hard to predict exactly where the car ahead will go,” he explained.
“There was a moment when I misjudged another car that tried to block the Peugeot; I moved to the other side, and he turned in on me, resulting in a light contact. Fortunately, it didn’t derail our race.”
Aitken later received a five-second penalty for the contact with the No. 32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO, but the No. 12 stayed in fourth position nonetheless.
In the closing twenty minutes, the Cadillacs swapped positions as Aitken in the No. 12 attempted to overhaul the No. 50 Ferrari 499P. The move did not produce the hoped-for improvement, and the cars returned to their original order.
“The No. 12 and No. 51 had been fairly static, so they allowed me through to see if I could make up ground on No. 51. If I couldn’t, and given the penalty, we would revert the positions if it didn’t work out,” Aitken explained.
“We tried it for a handful of laps, but I didn’t manage to gain enough time, so we swapped the order back.”
