CORONAVIRUS WON’T SCUPPER PORSCHE WEC RETURN

Porsche has said the coronavirus crisis is not a barrier to its potential Le Mans 24 Hour race and World Endurance Championship assault via the forthcoming LMDH rules.

Porsche in recent weeks confirmed it will evaluate a return to top-class endurance racing upon publication of the LMDH regulations, which will allow the same machinery to compete at the front in WEC and North America’s IMSA championship. Now it has added that the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic is not impeding the move.

“I’m sure that it’s a factor but at the moment it is not one of the most important factors for the decision for LMDH,” Porsche motorsport boss Pascal Zurlinden said. “LMDH, it’s a global platform which in the time where probably there could be an economic crisis, it is a costeffective way to do motorsport. So we are waiting to get the rules to see that it’s a really costeffective formula just like this and then we will do some evaluation and concept as we communicated before.”

Porsche’s reigning WEC GTE champion Kevin Estre said that he will “push for” Porsche’s move back to top-flight sportscar racing via LMDH.

He said: “Fighting for the victory in Le Mans overall is one of my goals since I started endurance racing.”

His fellow champion driving partner Michael Christensen added: “I would think that Porsche would love to fight for overall victories. [My] main dream would be to be able to fight for overall victory in the greatest races of endurance racing.”