IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP: SAHLEN'S SIX HOURS OF THE GLEN

June 23, 2024

Sebastien Bourdais

Renger Van Der Zande

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everybody. We are pleased to be joined by our second-place finishers here in today's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen, co-drivers of the No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R., Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais. This is their fourth podium of the season.

Renger, if you could start us off. Obviously quite an eventful race there. Tell us about kind of how it shook out at the end from your seat.

RENGER VAN DER ZANDE: Yeah, I think this is one of those typical IMSA races where everything can happen, and it happened. The red flag is also happening a lot in this race almost every year.

We had a good start. We had some speed in the car in the dry. It faded away a little bit from us. Yeah, I think we were doing okay until the rain came. I think in the rain we kind of stayed hanging in there.

At the end when the track dried up, we all came for slicks. It was very clear from the get-go that every time I went to power, there was just not enough power to attack. Third gear, fourth gear, fifth gear, the gap was always increasing on every straight.

On top of that, I have to say hats off for this championship to get to where it is. It's super equal, lap time-wise, very equal. Big compliment from that. We would like to race a bit more. We would have a bit more racy car to go into the final. Otherwise you make a small wiggle, as you saw on my restart, into turn one, they just blow by on the straights. We're fast enough in the corners, but not on the straight.

I think Felipe Nasr was a bit of a déjà vu for me. I think it was last year or two years before the DPi stopped. We had the same conditions, wet track with slicks. We both disappeared in the distance with him winning and I'm second.

We'll see what we can do better on the final pit stop. We'll see what we can do better on our side. For now I think we're taking a lot of points home, yeah, to go into the final couple races of the championship.

I'm not complaining. I'm very happy.

THE MODERATOR: Seb, took a lot of points home. Fourth podium of the season. Obviously you want to win. How does it work out as far as being maximum points otherwise?

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: Yeah, I mean, I think it's a decent points day. Unfortunately it's the wrong car that wins for us (smiling). The gap gets bigger. We live to fight another day. I think I'll just echo what Renger is saying. Pretty much for the third weekend in a row, Detroit, Le Mans and this one, we don't have any top speed to allow us to race and fight. I'm tired of it. We're not asking for lap time or performance, but we need something to be done here. It's just not a fair fight.

Yeah, that's it really. The whole team did a really good job. We keep fighting hard, but it's frustrating at times.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Renger, before the restart, were you at least optimistic that you'd have a shot at going after the Porsche?

RENGER VAN DER ZANDE: We knew this was the problem. I knew if I wanted to win this race, it had to happen in the first corner.

When they had a little moment into turn one, I was lucky to get by Louis Deletraz because I think he also has quite a bit more top speed. Later on, it would be almost impossible.

When I was behind Felipe, I was waiting for him to make a mistake, which he didn't.

For sure I'm here to win. Maybe with a faster pit stop we could have been in front of them already. Who knows. Hats off to the Penske team doing such a good job, and Porsche, and Felipe not making mistakes.

Yeah, for sure I thought I could win, yeah.

Q. Renger, it's not the result you want, but the last 15 minutes were fun to watch. What was the view of getting through traffic from your point of view?

RENGER VAN DER ZANDE: I mean, it's that balls-out feeling of no time to waste. That's how we went into that final with the traffic. They are obviously also fighting for the position. At one point going into the chicane with a Corvette and an Aston Martin, they were fighting each other, I come around as well. It's quite tricky. It's really a dance between those cars and us to not too much each other.

We made it happen. This championship, it's the only championship in the world what has that kind of racing, which is very particular and very cool. It's very nice to do that.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.