Porsche doubles Le Mans GT line-up

AN EXPANSION OF PORSCHE’S GT programme for 2018, including a four-car assault on the Le Mans 24 Hours, has been made possible by its withdrawal from LMP1 in favour of a move to Formula E.

The German manufacturer will bring its IMSA Sportscar Championship squad over from North America to race alongside its regular World Endurance Championship line-up and give it four cars in the GTE Pro class at Le Mans on

June 16-17. At the same time, it will field a solo factory car in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup for the first time, as well as contesting all rounds of the Intercontinental GT Challenge with at least one works-supported car.

Porsche GT boss Frank-steffen Walliser explained that the move would not have been possible had the company remained committed to the high levels of expenditure required in P1.

“We would not have been able to do that if we were still competing in a more expensive category like LMP1,” he said. “When we made a decision to change our top sporting category, part of the idea was to allow us to strengthen our commitment to GT racing. That includes Le Mans, but also our customer programmes in GTE and GT3.”

Porsche will build seven examples of its newfor-2017 mid-engined 911 RSR for customer programmes across Le Mans, the WEC and the European Le Mans Series. It is also introducing an update kit for the existing 911 GT3-R.

Porsche has reshuffled its driver line-ups across its two programmes with the Gte-spec 911 RSR for next year. LMP1 drivers Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber have returned to IMSA as expected, while marque newcomer Gianmaria Bruni will switch from the North American programme to the WEC.

Dirk Werner and Frederic Makowiecki, who respectively raced in IMSA and the WEC in 2017, will be part of the BGTS and IGTC programmes. They will share a Manthey-run 911 GT3-R with Romain Dumas in the BGTS and be placed with local teams in the Bathurst,

Suzuka and Laguna Seca enduros that make up the IGTC along with the Spa 24 Hours.