A Penske-Porsche alliance in WEC and IMSA

If we had informed you in our columns of the high probability of seeing the interests of Porsche en IMSA defended by Team Penske, the surprise comes from the fact that this will also be the case in WEC.

Indeed, from 2023, Porsche Penske Motorsport will be present in both the WEC and IMSA, with an LMDh currently being gestated in Zuffenhausen and which should carry out its burn-in in December.

“We are delighted to have been able to seal this partnership with Team Penske, emphasizes Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Board of Management of Porsche AG. For the first time in the history of Porsche Motorsport, our company will havethe same team which will compete in the two biggest Endurance series in the world. For this, we will benefit from bases on both sides of the Atlantic (Zuffenhausen in Germany and Mooresville – North Carolina – in the United States. Editor’s note). This will allow us to rely on optimal structures that we will need to win, overall – in particular – the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Daytona or the 12 Hours of Sebring. » 

According to our information, it will indeed be one and the same team, with common key elements. A very different plan from that adopted by Chip Ganassi Racing with Ford from 2016 to 2019. And for good reason, in WEC, the team only had Ganassi in name, the GTs being in reality operated by Multimatic Engineering.

Let the other teams reassure themselves, the future German LMDh will also be available to customers. “Not only will we keep our fingers crossed for the four factory cars we enter, but also for our customer teams, says Dr. Michael Steiner, head of Porsche's research and development department. Our new LMDh will also be fielded by private teams in the two championships from 2023. They will benefit from our fullest support and we will share with them all the information that we glean with our official team. »

As a reminder, Roger Penske has already come to Sarthe twice, in 1963 as a pilot on a Ferrari 330 TR LM shared with Pedro Rodriguez, then in 1971 as team boss, with a Ferrari 512 M. In this position, the man nicknamed The Captain won everything, notably the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, Indy 500, Bathurst 1000, Daytona 500 and even a victory in F1, namely the 1976 edition of the Austrian Grand Prix with a Penske PC4-Ford driven by John Watson.

“In this long list of victories, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is missing., underlines Fritz Enzinger, boss of Porsche Motorsport. I hope that we will be able to remedy this as early as 2023 as Porsche Penske Motorsport, which would be Porsche's 20th overall success in Sarthe and a dream come true. Porsche and Penske have already excelled together on the racetrack. Most recently from 2006 to 2008 in the American Le Mans Series. »

With the RS Spyder, Team Penske won all the LM P2 titles for three years, even managing to beat the LM P1s on multiple occasions, notably duringan epic edition of the 12 Hours of Sebring, in 2008, with the trio Timo Bernhard-Emmanuel Collard-Romain Dumas.

But in the 1970s, the Penske-Porsche duo had already disgusted the competition in Can-Am, with the monstrous 917/10 and 917/30.

“This is a proud day for Penske, rejoices Roger Penske, the founding boss of the eponymous entity. We represent Porsche on the circuits and in the world of industry (around twenty concessions. Editor’s note) for more than six decades. I can’t wait for it to start…”

And so are we! So looking forward to the 24 2023 Hours of Daytona…

To find out everything about the Porsche-Penske partnership in WEC and IMSA, don't miss issue 2310 of AUTOhebdo, already available in digital version and on newsstands tomorrow.