A big personality in the world of motorsports in general and F1 in particular, Philippe Gurdjian, who passed away last week, also raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans six times.

American manufacturer Cadillac has updated its hypercar for its two-pronged championship commitments in 2026.

Next season, the&nbsp;Cadillac V-Series.R&nbsp;will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship&nbsp;with a new aero set-up. While the American hypercar retains signature design elements of the production V-Series, notable changes have been made. These include the removal of the front dive planes and winglets and a reshaped rear wing profile. The rear wing now appears to be lower as a result.

These updates are intended to boost the peak speed of the V-Series.R. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the quickest Cadillac V-Series.R (the Cadillac Whelen #311 car) reached&nbsp;345.6 kph. In comparison, the top speed for a Ferrari 499P was 349 kph&nbsp;(for the Ferrari AF Corse #50 car). The Hertz Team JOTA #12 Cadillac meanwhile peaked at 343.4 kph.

Three Cadillac V-Series.Rs are taking part in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship homologation tests today and tomorrow at the Daytona International Speedway. All feature these improvements.

Cadillac improves V-Series.R Hypercar aero for 2026

The third episode in our YouTube mini-series dedicated to racing families at the 24 Hours covers a deeply moving father-son relationship. It's the story of Eduardo Barrichello's first participation in the Le Mans classic, following in the footsteps of his father, Rubens.

After the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/a-youtube-mini-series-all-about-racing-families-at-the-2025-24-hours-of-le-mans-60044" target="_blank">Taylor</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/inside-the-vanthoors-the-vanthoor-brothers-at-the-2025-24-hours-of-le-mans-60076" target="_blank">Vanthoor</a>&nbsp;families, our&nbsp;YouTube mini-series about racing families at the 2025&nbsp;24 Hours&nbsp;continues with The Barrichellos Story spotlighting&nbsp;Eduardo Barrichello, the son of former F1 driver Rubens Barrichello who represented Racing Team Nederland at&nbsp;Le Mans in 2017 in the&nbsp;LMP2 category.

This year, Eduardo took his rookie&nbsp;start in the race at the wheel of Racing Spirit of Leman&#39;s #10&nbsp;Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3. This episode&nbsp;revisits that pivotal moment in his young career as he&nbsp;discovers the world&rsquo;s most demanding race.

But&nbsp;The Barrichellos Story&nbsp;goes beyond the sporting aspect of this relationship, revealing&nbsp;the closeness&nbsp;between the two,&nbsp;with Rubens thrilled to witness his son&#39;s first Le Mans experience. Watch&nbsp;how his&nbsp;advice, experience and kindness helped his Eduardo&nbsp;find his way in motorsport and&nbsp;realize&nbsp;his dream of participating in the 24 Hours.

This episode also delves into&nbsp;how Eduardo&rsquo;s race unfolded, including&nbsp;behind-the-scenes coverage of&nbsp;the Racing Spirit of Leman garage.

Check out&nbsp;The Barrichellos Story, the third&nbsp;episode in&nbsp;our&nbsp;2025 24 Hours of Le Mans YouTube mini-series, at the official&nbsp;<a href="http://www.youtube.com/@24heuresdumans">24 Hours of Le&nbsp;Mans YouTube channel</a>.

24 Heures du Mans 2025 - The Barrichellos Story | A deeply connected father-son relationship

24 Heures du Mans 2025 – L’histoire des Barrichellos ou une relation père-fils profondément liée

The Barrichellos Story: a father-son duo bonded by the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA has announced its driver line-ups for the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship season. The American manufacturer is banking on continuity and experience.

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA ended the 2025 season in fourth place in the FIA Hypercar World Endurance Manufacturers&rsquo; Championship. Highlights of the campaign were undoubtedly a maiden victory in the 6 Hours of S&atilde;o Paulo and three pole positions, including Hyperpole at the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans. The outfit is banking on two talented, experienced driver line-ups to add further wins to its tally in 2026.

Alex Lynn,&nbsp;Norman Nato&nbsp;and Will Stevens scored points in every round in 2025 and will continue to&nbsp; share the wheel of the #12 <a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/the-cadillac-v-series-r-under-the-microscope-ready-to-roar-for-america-at-le-mans-59659" target="_blank">Cadillac V-Series.R</a>. 
Thirty-year-old Jack Aitken will join Earl Bamber&nbsp;and S&eacute;bastien Bourdais&nbsp;in the #38 sister car. He will take the seat vacated by Jenson Button, the 2009 Formula One world champion, who is retiring after two seasons with JOTA.

&ldquo;We&rsquo;re delighted to welcome Jack on board,&rdquo;&nbsp;said JOTA Sport director and founder David Clark.&nbsp;&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been following his progress closely this year and have been really impressed by his raw pace and consistency &mdash; both essential ingredients for success in the Hypercar category. As an existing member of the wider Cadillac Racing driver family, Jack is a natural fit for us. He already understands the culture, the people, and the expectations within the Cadillac ecosystem. Beyond his performance on track, Jack&rsquo;s calm personality and team-first attitude make him an excellent addition to our driver line-up. We never take team chemistry for granted &mdash; six individual stars won&rsquo;t win endurance races, but six drivers who work as one can. Everything we&rsquo;ve seen from Jack so far shows he embodies that spirit, and we can&rsquo;t wait to see what he achieves with the team next season.&rdquo;

Aitken had the chance to try out the Cadillac V-Series.R in its FIA WEC set-up during the Rookie Test held the day after the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain. Next season, he will also compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with Action Express Racing.&nbsp;&ldquo;I am very appreciative that Cadillac has that trust and are willing to give me the opportunity,&rdquo; said the British racer. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very exciting for me personally because I&rsquo;ve never raced in the WEC and I&rsquo;ve never raced with JOTA, even though we&rsquo;ve come close a couple of times and have had a relationship that is now coming to fruition. They have fantastic people &ndash; from the drivers to the staff &ndash; and it&rsquo;s a team that has had success in WEC.&nbsp; I&rsquo;m excited to try to take what I&rsquo;ve learned in IMSA at Action Express and bring that across to try to push things forward.&nbsp; I&rsquo;m excited to start the year and to double up on my time in the Cadillac V-Series.R.&rdquo;

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA swaps Button for Aitken in 2026

Ferrari won the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles in today’s Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain season finale, sealing the deal in style with a triple top five finish in Sakhir.

In its third campaign in FIA WEC&rsquo;s top-tier, the legendary Italian marque has been the benchmark all year in the Hypercar class, winning the opening four races with its 499P prototype to establish an advantage that none of its rivals was ultimately able to overcome.

The result represents the Prancing Horse&rsquo;s first global endurance racing success since lifting the laurels in the World Sportscar Championship more than half-a-century ago in 1972, ending up a commanding 75 points ahead of closest competitor Toyota in the Manufacturers&rsquo; classification.

To complete Ferrari&rsquo;s joy, its three crews locked out the top three positions in the Drivers&rsquo; standings. Courtesy of a fourth-place finish in Bahrain, Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi clinched the crown behind the wheel of the #51 Ferrari AF Corse entry, having led the way since triumphing on home turf at Imola back in April.

The runner-up spoils went the way of 24 Hours of Le Mans winners Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye in the privately-run #83 AF Corse 499P, with the #50 Ferrari AF Corse crew (Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina) taking third.

The final race of the season was won by outgoing Manufacturers&rsquo; World Champion Toyota.

In the LMGT3 class, Manthey 1st Phorm won the FIA ​​Endurance Trophy for LMGT3 teams. Riccardo Pera, Richard Lietz, and Ryan Hardwick were crowned champions in the drivers&#39; standings. They had also won at 24 Hours of Le Mans.

<a href="https://fiawec.tv/" target="_blank">Watch FIA WEC live</a>&nbsp;or on-demand via the official FIA WEC TV app &ndash; your full-access pass to the FIA World Endurance Championship including the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans. Don&rsquo;t miss a moment. For further information, check out the app.

FIA WEC : Ferrari crowned FIA World Endurance Champions in Bahrain

<div class="donneesIPTC">It was in 1975 that Philippe Gurdjian discovered the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 (the famous &quot;Daytona&quot;). He passed under the checkered flag in 13th place in his first participation. After being forced to retire in 1976, he was at the start for three editions at the wheel of Porsches prepared by brothers Manfred and Erwin Kremer. Thanks to those two great Porsche experts, Gurdjian achieved his best result in La Sarthe in 1977 with a seventh place finish and class victory. In 1978 and 79, Gurdjian&#39;s teammate was German gentleman-driver Louis Krages (John Winter), future winner of the 24 Hours in 1985. In 1981, for his last participation, he joined Ferrari, with Luigi Chinetti&#39;s prestigious American team, NART, which in 1965 won Ferrari&#39;s last victory to date in Le Mans.</div>

During the last quarter-century, Gurdjian could typically be found in the world of Formula 1. He was the promotor for the Grand Prix of France from the moment he arrived at the Magny-Cours circuit in 1991 until 1998, then contributed to the presence of F1 in developing countries, namely Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. To him we also owe the renovation of the Paul Ricard circuit, rebaptized HTTT, which today hosts the preliminary tests for the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), as well as the French round of the European Le Mans Series (on Sunday, September 14th this year). 
 
To the family and loved ones of this major player in last 40 years&#39; of motorsports, the Automobile Club de l&rsquo;Ouest expresses its sincerest condolences.

24H LE MANS

24 Hours of Le Mans - Philippe Gurdjian (1945-2014)

Related News

Cadillac improves V-Series.R Hypercar aero for 2026

The Barrichellos Story: a father-son duo bonded by the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA swaps Button for Aitken in 2026

FIA WEC : Ferrari crowned FIA World Endurance Champions in Bahrain

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