motor sports | Endurance | Le Mans Hypercar 2023 presentation: Porsche

Porsche will make its big comeback to the highest level of endurance racing in 2023, six years after its last victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2017. The manufacturer will run a factory program in collaboration with Team Penske.

The German marque will field two 963 LMDhs in the WEC and IMSA and will race under the Porsche Penske Motorsport name on both sides of the Atlantic. But that’s not all since it will also have two customer cars per championship.

Very competitive in LMP2, the JOTA team will take care of one of them in WEC, while JDC-Miller will also run a 963 in IMSA. Proton Competition, Porsche’s long-time GT partner, is expected to take care of the remaining two cars, one in WEC and the other in IMSA. On the other hand, the 963 customers should not be ready from the very start of the 2023 season.

As part of the LMDh regulations, Porsche opted for the new generation LMP2 chassis produced by Multimatic. The 963 will be powered by a 4.6-litre twin-turbo V8 engine that also powers the 918, the brand’s production car.

The structure based in Stuttgart will in any case have had time to run its new prototype, the tests having started in January. It also ran two 963s in August during tests at Monza.

In total, the German prototype has exceeded 24,500 kilometers, thanks to a colossal run this weekend at Sebring. In 36 hours, the 963 added 7700 kilometers to its total program, with no obvious problems (pictured). A strong sign sent to the competition in terms of reliability.

Regarding the drivers, the German manufacturer has already given the identity of the eight men who will be responsible for driving the 963 of the factory program in WEC and IMSA: André Lotterer, Felipe Nasr, Kévin Estre, Michael Christensen, Laurens Vanthoor, Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Dane Cameron.

Find here the list of manufacturers entered with their LMH/LMDH in the WEC/IMSA championships in 2023.