Bernhard hangs up his helmet

Two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner

Timo Bernhard is hanging up his helmet at the age of 38. The long-time Porsche driver will move into an ambassadorial role with the marque as he concentrates on building up the Team 75 Bernhard squad he runs with his father, Rudiger.

Bernhard explained that the move, announced last weekend at Porsche’s annual prizegiving, was “the end of my professional career”. He’s not ruling out contesting the odd rally or hillclimb for fun, but says he won’t don his helmet in anger again, not even to drive for his own team.

“I always said I wanted to stop when I was about 40, and I’m 39 in February,” he said. “The double role of driving and running a team is very difficult, so now is the time to focus on building up the team. The timing is right for me to take the next step.”

Bernhard joined Porsche in 1999, when he was 18 years old, as a junior driver to contest the German Carrera Cup and selected Supercup rounds. He picked his outright Le Mans victory with Porsche together with Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber in 2017 as the highlight of a career that also yielded a pair of World Endurance Championship titles.

“It felt like everything came together for that dramatic race,” said Bernhard, whose first Le Mans victory in 2010 came when he was on loan with Audi.

“An outright win at Le Mans was the last piece missing in my Porsche career.”

Team 75 Bernhard will be growing in 2020. As well as again fielding a pair of Porsche 911 GT3-RS in ADAC GT Masters, it will expand its assault to two cars in its GT4 feeder series. Bernhard is also establishing a kart team for next season.

Porsche veteran Jorg Bergmeister will also take an ambassadorial role from next year. The 43-year-old, a five-time class champion in the American Le Mans Series, says he’ll only be racing for pleasure in the future. “I’d like to do Le Mans one more time,” he said,

“and I might end up doing three or four races a year at circuits I like.”

French up-and-comer Mathieu Jaminet and Australian talent Matt Campbell have been promoted from Porsche ‘young professionals’ to full factory drivers.