Who are the drivers chosen by Porsche for the Hypercar?

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Kevin Estre (France)
A bit of chauvinism doesn't hurt. Let's begin this round table with one of the two French people hired by the Porsche Penske Motorsport (PPM) within the LMDh program. The Lyonnais has spent most of his career aboard cars from Zuffenhausen (Germany) since he focused on Grand Touring in 2008.

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Winner in Porsche Carrera Cup France in 2011, Kévin Estre repeated the same performance in the German version, and almost beat the Porsche Supercup specialists in 2013. Spent two years in the clan McLaren GT between 2014 and 2016, it then entered the official Porsche GT fold. It was aboard the extravagant Porsche 911 RSR that he earned his reference stripes in the WEC in GTE Pro, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2018 in the legendary “Pink Pig” livery with Laurens Vanthoor and Michael Christensen, two men he will meet again in 2023 in Hypercar.

Kevin Estre has established himself in the space of half a dozen years as one of the references in GT racing, signing remarkable victories at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring (2021), 24 Hours of Spa (2019) and some more than daring overtakings (see below). However, his only experience with a prototype dates back to the 24 2015 Hours of Le Mans, where he retired in an Oak Racing Ligier JSP2 with Laurens Vanthoor and Chris Cumming.

Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium)
Make a list of the specialist GT drivers who have had the best results over the last 10 years and you should come across the 31-year-old Belgian. Seeing that his future in promotional formulas was blocked, Laurens Vanthoor moved brilliantly into the FIA ​​GT Series, winning the title with Team WRT (Audi) in his second year of presence in 2013.

Winner of Blancpain Endurance Series a year later, the Francophone gained ground with the brand with the Rings via two crowns in the Intercontinental GT Challenge and in the FIA ​​GT World Cup in the winding streets of Macau in 2016. The Porsche GT Team then looked down on him and hired him in 2017. The 911 RSR and its deafening noise took him to the first step of the podium at Le Mans in 2018, then in IMSA in the GTLM class in 2019 against Corvette, BMW or Ferrari.

GTD champion still in IMSA in the United States in 2021, Laurens Vanthoor recently distinguished himself in a bitter battle against Mathieu Jaminet at the 24 2022 Hours of Daytona. He is a guy who will not give up on the track with the LMDh!

https://youtu.be/QariGZ9AV4Y

Michael Christensen (Denmark)
The third man to benefit from a big promotion is a faithful sidekick of the Estre-Vanthoor duo. Like the two men mentioned above, the Dane climbed the ranks of GT once his career in the GP3 Series ended in 2010.

Entering the program dedicated to young drivers in 2012, Michael Christensen experienced his greatest career moments sharing the wheel with Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor (Le Mans 2018, Spa 2019 with Estre and Richard Lietz, Nürburgring 2021). He also triumphed at the 24 Hours of Daytona (in GTLM) and the 12 Hours of Sebring (in GTD). In Grand Touring, he is therefore not missing any major Endurance race from his list of achievements! This program finally sanctions the taste for self-sacrifice and patience for Michael Christensen, who had to be content with a partial season in 2021 in the WEC.

Mathieu Jaminet (France)

His test in the No. 07 Oreca 5 of Team Penske during the Test Day of the 24 Hours of Le Mans when he was not included in the crew for the race therefore had a different meaning. 

The French driver also joins the Porsche Penske Motorsport program. Driver of the German firm since 2019, the native of Hayange has shone several times with the 911 RSR, notably in the United States. In IMSA, the Habs especially distinguished themselves by winning Sebring in 2021 and the 24 Hours of Daytona last January, at the end of an intense fight against… Laurens Vanthoor.

Matt Campbell (Australia)

Another Porsche GT specialist, Matt Campbell, will also be part of the Porsche Penske Motorsport adventure. A regular at the WEC and Le Mans since 2018 with Proton Racing, the man who also won the 12 Hours of Bathurst in 2019 finds Mathieu Jaminet and Felipe Nasr in this program, two drivers with whom he won the 24 Hours of Daytona in January at Pfaff Motorsports.

The ghost

André Lotterer (Germany)
Of the seven drivers confirmed for 2023, only the French-speaking driver has experienced the insane battles of the hybrid LM P1 era, first with Audi, then with Porsche. André Lotterer has statistics worthy of a team leader in Sarthe thanks to his three victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Audi (the legendary 2011 edition, then 2012 and 2014).

A.Lotterer finished the 2017 WEC season with Porsche in 4th place. © Jean Michel Le Meur / DPPI

Left behind by the retirement of the Porsche 919 at the end of 2017, André Lotterer agreed to move a notch lower with Rebellion with a non-hybrid LM P1 for two years, finishing the 2018-19 season fifth behind the unbeatable Toyota.

Converted to electric with the Formula E, it is in this discipline that this classic car lover was “recovered” by Porsche in 2019. Seventh after the Jakarta ePrix, André Lotterer was only waiting for an opportunity to dive back into Endurance, a sport for which his passion never faded. In 2023, he will be the veteran of the team (he will turn 41 on November 19).

Proto specialists

Dane Cameron (United States)
The American was confirmed last winter as an official Porsche representative. At 33, Dane Cameron has charted most of his career across the Atlantic, winning the DPi class in IMSA 2016 and 2019.

It was also in the United States that Dane Cameron made contact with Team Penske, responsible for entering two Acura DPi between 2017 and 2020. In 2019, his association with the experienced Juan Pablo Montoya allowed him to win the championship. He has solid technical knowledge passed down from his father Rick Cameron, a track engineer with 40 years of experience. In 2022, he discovered the WEC circuits within Team Penske in LM P2 with Felipe Nasr and Emmanuel Collard.

D. Cameron at the 24 2022 Hours of Le Mans with Team Penske in LM P2. © Alexandre Guillaumot / DPPI

Felipe Nasr (Brazil)
His passage into Formula 1 was brief but enough for Felipe Nasr to be known to the general European public for his performances with Sauber in 2015 and 2016. Seven finishes in the top 10 later, the native of Brasilia turned away from single-seaters to join IMSA and the DPi prototypes.

The transition to Endurance was successful, with a title in his first full campaign in 2018 with Acura and Action Express Racing. Associated with his compatriot Pipo Derani (now a Glickenhaus driver) and Eric Curran, Felipe Nasr won the 12 Hours of Sebring as well as Petit Le Mans, two of the most prestigious events of the American season.

Defeated by his new teammate Dane Cameron in 2019, Felipe Nasr took his revenge in authoritarian fashion in 2021, signing four victories and eight podiums in 11 rounds in DPi.

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Other driver announcements, including those for the endurance races at Daytona, Sebring and Road Atlanta (Petit Le Mans), will be made at a later date.