The reasons for Porsche's about-face

La Porsche 963 will not be traveling to Bahrain. The German LMDh has therefore decided to skip the season finale of the WEC while the team had nevertheless pushed behind the scenes to allow the new generation of prototypes to run in competition by the end of the year. “ This is an interesting opportunity, but it is still too early to decide whether we will seize it or not, explained Thomas Laudenbach, director of motorsport for the German firm, on the sidelines of the 1000 Miles of Sebring. We will look into that possibility, but the car not only has to be able to drive, it has to be able to race. » 

« The probability of seeing us there is indeed more than very high, explained Jonathan Diuguid, director of management of Team Penske, the team which will be in charge of operating Porsche factory LMDhs in the 2023 world endurance championship, at Goodwood. We have to make sure the car will be reliable enough beforehand, but you can never be sure of the potential of the team and the car until you have competed in a single race. The first opportunity will be Bahrain this year. »

More testing time and less costs

The manufacturer, however, decided to make an about-face. “ Taking part in the WEC round in Bahrain as an additional test session was an interesting option for Porsche Penske Motorsport, but we ultimately decided against it for various reasons, explains the brand. We want to maximize our time spent on track and be as cost efficient as possible. Based on this principle, we decided to take part in two additional tests in the United States. Furthermore, WEC uses sea freight for its logistics for Bahrain. This implies that important parts of the car dedicated to testing would have been unusable for a long period of time. »

Matt Campbell, Dane Cameron and Mathieu Jaminet (Photo: Porsche)

Thus, the German Hypercar has been running in testing sessions at Daytona in recent days alongside other manufacturers expected in the GTP category of theIMSA in 2023 (Acura, BMW, Cadillac). Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet, victorious five times in GTD Pro with the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche this season, and Dane Cameron, author of three races in LM P2 with Team Penske this year in the WEC, took turns, adding 2 kilometers on the prototype's odometer. The last driver named would probably have been there in Bahrain with Felipe Nasr, the first two factory drivers revealed by the manufacturer and teammates during the first half of the season in the world endurance championship.

#PorschePenskeMotorsport – The brand-new #Porsche 963 made another important step in it's preparation for the 2023 @FIAWEC and @IMSA season. Our crew conducted a productive test at @DAYTONA.

1⃣ because
2 days
3 drivers
more than 2⃣0⃣0⃣0⃣ kilometers 👍#HeadAndHeart #TeamPorsche pic.twitter.com/33HKO5DRPZ

— Porsche Motorsport (@PorscheRaces) September 6, 2022

If the Stuttgart structure has decided not to go to the next test organized by the North American endurance championship, at Road Atlanta (from October 3 to 5), this decision to postpone the competition debut aims to optimize his time in testing. “We were discussing different tests in North America, we will see how to use this saved time”, confirms Urs Kuratle, director of the Porsche factory dedicated to the LMDh project. If the action plan for the coming months has yet to be defined in detail, the overall vision behind this turnaround is based on an acceleration of tests across the Atlantic.

Objective: 24 Hours of Daytona 2023

In view of the 24 2023 Hours of Daytona, the German brand hopes to reach the 30 kilometer mark. Currently it is almost half missing with just over 000 kilometers covered. The Florida circuit will also be one of the future destinations, during a new IMSA test, on December 16 and 000. Especially since Porsche still has to chase away a few more “gremlins”, notably those which have nestled in the MGU supplied by Bosch. This is also the whole point of these joint test sessions: the LMDh manufacturers working with the same suppliers, sharing data allows them to track down the little beasts more easily and, de facto, to resolve them more quickly. Daytona was not the first time that Porsche and Cadillac shared the same track in testing, since the two future competitors for victory in the Florida double tour had already found themselves together at Sebring in July, with the support of the engineers on site. from Bosch and Williams.

Porsche still has to resolve a few issues with its 963 (Photo: Porsche)

While Cadillac was (also) announced in Bahrain, Laura Wontrop Klauser quickly put the rumor to rest during the 6 Hours of Monza. “I know there is talk of our presence, but it is still too early for this car, she confided. Our first race will be the 24 2023 Hours of Daytona in January and I must admit that it will happen very quickly for us. » Porsche has therefore decided to follow the same path in order to optimize its preparation for the Florida classic where the victory will be all the more symbolic as it will be the first of the new golden age of endurance, while avoiding the pitfalls of a possible Bahraini snub. As Thomas Laudenbach pointed out: « The car not only has to be able to drive, it has to be able to race. »And to win it.

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