- Porsche Motorsport’s strong works teams go on a worldwide hunt for titles
- Four Porsche 99X Electric tackle Formula E season with a record 17 races
- Reorganised driver squad in the Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team
- Works driver Thomas Preining on a mission to defend his DTM title in 2024
- Frenchman Alessandro Ghiretti selected as the new 2024 Porsche Junior
- Nicolas Leutwiler wins Porsche Cup as the most successful amateur driver
Porsche Motorsport heads into 2024 with big aspirations. Next year, the sports car manufacturer from Stuttgart is determined to win titles with its factory teams in the world’s largest endurance championships, at Le Mans, and various esports series. A variety of customer racing activities will supplement this programme. Porsche announced its plans on Saturday (2 December) at the annual “Night of Champions”. As part of the gala in the Weissach development centre, Nicolas Leutwiler from Switzerland was awarded the Porsche Cup as the best amateur driver of the 2023 season. The Frenchman Alessandro Ghiretti took part in the celebrations as the new Porsche Junior.
Titles and victories in the world’s greatest races: This is the high benchmark that Porsche Motorsport has set itself for the 2024 season. On the occasion of the “Night of Champions” at the Weissach R&D facility on Saturday evening (2 December), the sports car manufacturer presented its extensive and ambitious programme for the coming year. The core elements remain the same: the works engagement with the Porsche 963 in the FIA World Endurance Championship WEC and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the campaign with the Porsche 99X Electric in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship and the ESL R1 sim racing competition with the Porsche factory team Coanda Esports Racing Team.
“Motorsport is at the core of the Porsche brand. For us, motorsport and innovation are inextricably linked. New developments from motorsport improve our road cars,” explains Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG. “In motorsport, we rely on our pioneering spirit, our courage and our sportiness. The love for Porsche begins on the racetrack. There’s often not a lot between victory and defeat. We experienced this firsthand this year. But we wouldn’t be Porsche if we didn’t learn from setbacks. We’re fierce fighters with great ambition and perseverance. That has always set us apart.”
“In 2024 we’ll concentrate fully on our current portfolio in factory and customer racing,” states Michael Steiner. The Board Member for Research and Development at Porsche AG adds: “With the FIA WEC, the IMSA series and Formula E, we take on three fantastic championships. We’re strongly represented here with Andretti, JDC-Miller, Proton, Jota and our works teams. With more manufacturers coming on board, it’ll be extremely exciting, especially in the World Endurance Championship and at Le Mans. We aim to fight for victories and championships. In the virtual scene, I’m excited to see how the ESL R1 series and our successful Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team will continue to develop.”
FIA WEC and IMSA: Campbell and Cameron switch Porsche 963 cockpits
The Porsche Penske Motorsport works team will tackle the FIA World Endurance Championship WEC and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2024 with a slightly different driver line-up. For the coming season, American Dane Cameron and Matt Campbell from Australia will swap cockpits. In the World Endurance Championship, Campbell will share the No. 5 Porsche 963 with Michael Christensen from Denmark and Frenchman Frédéric Makowiecki. Kévin Estre (France), André Lotterer (Germany) and Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) continue to share the sister car.
In the North American IMSA Championship, Mathieu Jaminet from France and Nick Tandy from Great Britain will once again crew the No. 6 hybrid prototype. The duo clinched the maiden race win for the Porsche 963 on the Long Beach street circuit in April this year. At the 24 Hours of Daytona season opener in January, Jaminet and Tandy will be joined in the cockpit by Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor. Felipe Nasr from Brazil and Dane Cameron from the USA will share driving duties as the regular drivers in the No. 7 vehicle. The pair receives support at Daytona from Matt Campbell and American IndyCar star Josef Newgarden.
“We’ve made a logical change in our driver squad,” explains Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport. “Our goal continues to be to optimise the overall package for contesting the two major championships. This applies to the vehicle and the team processes as well as the cockpit crews. Last season we fought for the title in the IMSA series until the last race. Our expectations for 2024 are high: we want to lead the way in North America, Le Mans and the FIA WEC.”
Formula E: Four Porsche 99X Electric target the title
Porsche celebrated its most successful Formula E season to date: In 2023, the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team achieved four wins in the innovative electric racing series and was within reach of clinching the title with the Porsche 99X Electric until the final round of the season. “We’ve evolved into a top team and have established ourselves at the top,” says Florian Modlinger, Director Factory Motorsport in Formula E. “With the Porsche 99X Electric Gen3, we’ve developed a vehicle capable of winning. It was a strong team effort.”
In 2023, Porsche supported a customer team, Avalanche Andretti, in Formula E for the first time. The American team owned by the US motorsport legend Michael Andretti tapped the full potential of the package that Porsche provided: In the Porsche 99X Electric, Jake Dennis (UK) drove to title glory in the drivers’ world championship.
Porsche now aims to build on these successes in season 10 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. In 2024, the impressive calendar features a record number of 17 races, including, for the first time, the fascinating metropolises of Tokyo and Shanghai. The season opens with the Mexico City E-Prix on 13 January. Now in its fifth Formula E season, the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team again fields two Porsche 99X Electric racers with drivers Pascal Wehrlein (Germany) and António Félix da Costa (Portugal). Returning to contest the series under a new name, Andretti Formula E, the customer team also campaigns two of the Weissach-developed electric racing cars. The reigning world champion Jake Dennis is joined in the cockpit by a new teammate: Norman Nato from France.
Esports: Works team takes on top series, virtual Supercup fiercely contested
The Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team returns in 2024 to tackle many events on virtual racetracks. The works team will again contest the ESL R1 series based on the Rennsport simulation software as well as the Le Mans Virtual Series. With its headquarters in Gronau in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia, the squad is represented by works drivers Joshua Rogers, Dayne Warren (both Australia) and Charlie Collins (Great Britain), among others. Moreover, the spectacular Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup run on iRacing’s sim racing platform will also be contested in 2024. Thirty contestants have qualified for the coming season and will fight for lucrative prize money.
Customer racing: Partner teams contest the world’s most important GT series
With the introduction of the new class for GT3 vehicles in the FIA WEC, the competition in the Le Mans classic also changes fundamentally. Manthey will fly the Porsche colours in the 2024 World Endurance Championship. The outfit fields two 911 GT3 R and goes up against GT cars from eight other manufacturers. Among others, the two Austrians Richard Lietz and Klaus Bachler will helm the cockpits. The team based in Meuspath in Germany’s Eifel region also continues its DTM campaign. The reigning champions once again rely on the works driver and 2023 DTM driver’s champion Thomas Preining from Austria in one of the two ca. 415 kW (565 PS) cars.
Four teams will field a total of five Porsche 911 GT3 R in the two GT classes of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. AO Racing will advance to the GTD Pro category. Kellymoss with Riley runs a vehicle in both GT classes. Wright Motorsports and MDK Motorsports will take on the GTD category, where they will face the new Porsche customer squad Andretti Motorsports. In the Intercontinental GT Challenge, the GT World Challenge, the European Le Mans Series and the Asian Le Mans Series, customer teams receive the same support from Porsche in 2024 as in the previous year. The same applies to the GT4 racing series and classes with the successful Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport.
Two of the major racing highlights for customers each year are the 24-hour races at the Nürburgring and in Spa-Francorchamps. In 2024, numerous Porsche partner teams will continue to fight for overall and class victories at these classic events with racing vehicles from Weissach. Seasoned squads and strong driver line-ups will tackle the Nürburgring-Nordschleife on 1/2 June 2024. Specific entries will be announced in the coming weeks. Porsche Motorsport is also expecting a large contingent of customer teams to travel to the FIA GT World Cup in Macau with the 911 GT3 R.
Porsche’s one-make cups have been an important and well-established mainstay in the customer sport programme since 1986. In addition to the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, which will again run as part of the European Formula 1 support programme in 2024, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup will line up on the grid of 35 national and regional Porsche Carrera Cups, among others. To date, over 1,000 992-generation GT3 Cup vehicles have been built. For the 2024 season, Porsche Motorsport and local partners will continue to develop the fledgling series in New Zealand and Indonesia as well as the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East, among others. In addition, Porsche and Manthey join forces once again to contest the Porsche Endurance Trophy Nürburgring.
Alessandro Ghiretti contests the 2024 season as the new Porsche Junior
Alessandro Ghiretti is the new Porsche Junior. The 21-year-old Frenchman beat eleven competitors in an extensive selection process in Portugal. The reigning rookie champion of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup will receive a sponsorship package of up to 225,000 Euros towards his racing commitments as well as comprehensive training in all areas relevant to motorsport. Among other accolades, the vice-champion of the Porsche Carrera Cup France has set his sights on claiming the 2024 Supercup title.
Porsche Cup: Nicolas Leutwiler honoured as the most successful private driver
Nicolas Leutwiler has won the 2023 Porsche Cup. At the wheel of customer-run Porsches, the 63-year-old gentleman driver from Switzerland earned 17,312 points as the best amateur driver in his category. With this, “Niki” Leutwiler relegated the German Robert Renauer (13,758 points) and last year’s Porsche Cup winner Ralf Bohn (Germany, 12,633 points) to second and third place. The winner of the 2023 Porsche Cup celebrated numerous successes last season in the Asian Le Mans Series and the GT World Challenge with the 911 GT3 R as well as in the GT4 European Series with the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport. As a prize, Leutwiler receives a road-legal Porsche of his choice worth up to 150,000 Euros. This time-honoured trophy is based on the idea of Ferry Porsche and has been presented annually to successful amateur drivers since 1970.
