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Cadillac JOTA team principal Dieter Gass believes the additions of Antonio Felix da Costa and Ricky Taylor to the driver lineup will significantly boost the team's prospects for the 2027 FIA World Endurance Championship season.
The American manufacturer announced ahead of last month's race weekend in Barcelona that Da Costa and Taylor will replace Alex Lynn and Sebastien Bourdais behind the wheel of the two Cadillac V-Series.R prototypes.
The move marks a return to JOTA Sport for Da Costa, who last raced for the British squad in 2023 in a customer Porsche 963, following the conclusion of his Alpine project.
Taylor, meanwhile, joins current JOTA driver Jack Aitken in running dual full-season campaigns across both the WEC and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. The American driver already made a one-off appearance for the outfit in Texas earlier this year.
Discussing the new driver roster, Gass emphasized the benefits of drivers logging as much track time as possible behind the wheel of the V-Series.R. He believes the revamped lineup provides Cadillac with an ideal foundation to excel in the fiercely contested Hypercar class.
"Naturally, the first thing you look for is the talent you can bring into the car, and I think we already had a great foundation from this season," Gass told Sportscar365. "Bringing in Antonio and Ricky will only build on what we've already achieved."
"We saw it with Jack, as well as with Earl Bamber and Will Stevens—when you compete in both championships, it helps the entire project. The drivers get more seat time, learn to extract the maximum from the car, and at the same time, the teams benefit from better data and information sharing. Even with complete data transparency, direct driver feedback remains invaluable for everyone."
"Having Ricky in the car is fantastic news. He's very well known to General Motors, which is an added bonus. As for Antonio, we know him extremely well. We never lost touch, and he was always in the back of our minds given our shared history. We've had great experiences together in the past, and I think we're in a very strong position for 2027."
Gass added: "We weren't unhappy with the drivers' performances this year, but we know just how fierce the competition is on track. It comes down to fine margins and marginal gains wherever you can find them. The key will be combining the drivers into pairings where they work seamlessly together and collaborate effectively with the team."
The team boss clarified that the exact driver pairings across the two JOTA Cadillac entries for next season have not yet been finalized. He declined to confirm whether the team plans to keep the current crews together in the No. 12 and No. 38 cars.
When asked why Taylor was selected ahead of other Cadillac IMSA drivers, Gass explained: "When you look at the whole picture, he has a proven track record and a solid history of success, so we wanted that talent on board. I also think this is a fantastic opportunity for him to compete at a world championship level. Despite his impressive achievements so far, I believe there's still a lot more to come from him."
JOTA's two dual-campaign drivers will be split between Cadillac's two IMSA operations, with Aitken continuing for Action Express Racing and Taylor driving for his father's outfit, Wayne Taylor Racing.
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