Porsche and Penske are closing the necessary moves to build two self-sufficient teams with which to compete in parallel in WEC and IMSA. Highlighted the presence of the Porsche 963 in Bahrain, all the work is focused on the tests.
Porsche Motorsport has drawn a really ambitious LMDh project. The Stuttgart firm will compete in both the WEC hypercar class and the IMSA GTP class with Team Penske, thus shaping two official structures that will have two prototypes each. In parallel, the manufacturer will supply up to four units of its Porsche 963, two per championship, to private teams.
Leaving aside the ‘career-client’ program and focusing on the official project, Porsche and Penske have the goal of building two independent and autonomous structures with which to compete in the WEC and IMSA independently. This is the most immediate objective of the project, as explained by Jonathan Diuguidoverall project manager.
Porsche Motorsport and Penske will focus their efforts on testing their LMDh and will not be present at the 8 Hours of Bahrain
The Porsche Penske Motorsport project in the WEC will be managed from an extension to a Penske facility in Mannheim (Germany), while the team that will compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be based at the Team Penske headquarters in Mooresvilein North Carolina. Francis Shammo will be at the forefront of the European project and Joel Svenson of the American team.
«We are building a team not only here in the United States, but also in Mannheim. We are finishing our competition workshop there and it should be ready in four to six weeks. Weissach is one hour from Mannheim, so everything is very easy. From there we have operated the LMP2 prototype with which Penske has competed in the WEC »explained Diuguid.
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I work in Daytona
The ultimate plan is for the two Porsche Penske structures in the WEC and IMSA can operate independently, even if there is no clash of dates between the two championships beyond ‘Super Sebring’. For now, staff of both projects are participating in the tests of the Porsche 963the last example being the two-day testing session that has completed the mark at Daytona in the last week.
A test in which there have even been more staff than necessary, as Jonahtan Diuguid explains. Effect of this unfolding of structures that will take place in the coming weeks, since it is wanted that all those involved in both the European and American projects have the necessary knowledge of the Porsche 963. Of course, both arms of the project are expected to add additional staff.
perfect preparation
Among Porsche’s plans is add part of the WEC staff to the American team for the 24 Hours of Daytona and do the same, but in the opposite direction, for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, since in both tests there is a greater personnel limit than in the regular appointments of the World Endurance Championship and IMSA. That is also why part of the staff of the European project has been present at the Daytona test.
A two-day Porsche 963 test session at Daytona in which the brand’s brand new LMDh prototype has completed a total of 397 laps around the tracka figure that has allowed the various Porsche drivers to add 2,275 kilometers. The prototype has rolled in the wet, with 35 ºC ambient and also in night conditions. Dane Cameron, Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet have been the leading drivers of this test.
Photos: porsche motorsport