Penske Porsche weighing driver options for Le Mans
Hot off winning the Rolex 24 At Daytona last weekend, PPM intends to enter three cars at Le Mans, and exercise its automatic invitation gained by winning the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech GTP Championship.
In terms of its driver line-up, there is a key decision to make as it pursues a record-extending 20th overall victory in the French classic. After consolidating its Hypercar/GTP personnel down to eight drivers over the winter, one space is left open in the planned third car. Porsche Motorsport Vice President Thomas Laudenbach told reporters at Daytona that he's working on putting together that third car for Le Mans but has not yet decided on who would occupy that assumed vacancy.
'I can throw drivers out there — you won't believe it!' he joked, in response to questions about the subject. 'From the standard drivers, we have eight in the program and you need nine for three cars. We've got so many drivers contracted that we definitely don't have a problem.'
Laudenbach alluded to a short list of drivers that's already been created internally but of course, kept his cards close to his chest.
'I'm not confirming any names but really, we don't have a problem with drivers,' he said. 'We've got Formula E drivers — some of them already did endurance racing. We've got so many other skilled GT drivers. So I think we have enough choices that if it happens, we will have a third competitive car.'
'We always look at where we can improve, but it's not, let's say, a special thing to the third car. I mean, we will look at everything that we can improve, especially for Le Mans. Because Le Mans is important, not necessarily only for the third car.
'Of course, it is easier if you have a two-car team and you do the whole season the same. Obviously, processes are running; you know how to work with it and that's a normal thing. So if you add a third car, yes it adds an additional challenge, no question.'
This presumptive driver would almost certainly team up with reigning IMSA GTP champion Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy, alongside the two full-time FIA WEC entries (Julien Andlauer/Michael Christensen/Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 5, Matt Campbell/Kevin Estre/Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 6).
One name that has been floated around for a Le Mans cameo ever since he first tested the Porsche 963 last March is four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel. Such a move would echo Porsche's hirings of Mark Webber straight out of F1 in 2014 and then building a program around active F1 driver Nico Hülkenberg in 2015.
Beyond Le Mans, Laudenbach reiterated the Porsche remains open-minded about the prospect of drivers from Team Penske's other racing programs continuing to get opportunities to race the 963 in select events, a la Josef Newgarden who won the Rolex 24 last year in a cameo with Porsche.
'Where we are still free to do it, I would say yes. If you do it is always a different decision. But generally speaking, no, it is not ruled out,' he said.
Jonathan Diuguid, Porsche Penske Motorsport's managing director, noted that the chosen third driver selected for the third car at Le Mans could potentially also join the WEC effort at Spa-Francorchamps in May. That race clashes with the IMSA round at Laguna Seca, meaning Jaminet and Campbell will miss out due to their GTP commitments.
'It's something we've discussed, but we haven't made a decision yet because we don't have to,' said Diuguid. 'In the next couple of months we will make firm decisions because we have to do simulator prep.'
Diuguid did confirm that Campbell will join the No. 6 Porsche 963 for both the Qatar 1812 km and the race at Imola, with Jaminet set to share the No. 5 with full-season pair Andlauer and Christensen.
'We've got some opportunities to test there (Imola) too,' Diuguid added. 'Mathieu, who didn't get to run at Imola last year, is going to have an opportunity to test at the track beforehand.
'It's not just understanding the car, which he understands very well. It's the engineering crews, it's the Virtual Safety Car procedures and all the things as well. It's just a really good opportunity. The more time that PPM drivers drive 963s, the better it is for everybody.'
Later in the season, Porsche is set to use three drivers in both Hypercars in Bahrain, and it may also utilize three drivers in the WEC at other select races due to the challenges that hotter climates present for drivers.
'I think COTA or anything during the summertime is something we're looking at,' said Diuguid. 'The 963 has an air conditioning system which helps — it's not like going around in your road car but in general the guys have a high fitness level. We will play it by ear.'
Story originally appeared on Racer
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USA Today
13 minutes ago
- USA Today
What if AMC Motors had survived? How it could've changed the auto industry
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Miami Herald
3 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Cote: Asked & answered. We solve 8 biggest questions in Miami sports
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Forbes
4 hours ago
- Forbes
Driving The 282mph Bugatti Mistral, The World's Fastest Roadster
Fewer than 150 people have driven the $5.8 million, 16-cylinder, 1600bhp, 282.04mph Bugatti Mistral, of which only 99 will be built, and it's sold out. I'm now one of the 150 or so. I'm also one of only a handful of journalists to become the steering-wheel and loud pedal guide to the missile, currently the world's fastest roadster. Bugatti's history has been progressively etched in automotive lore since 1909. Much of the innovation and competitive nature of the carmaker, as well as its drive for the exceptional, resurfaced, thanks to previous owner Volkswagen Group's input and investment, in 2005 with the Veyron and its W16 motor, its final iteration powering the Mistral. I'll spare you the history lesson - it's widely-chronicled in Forbes. Bugatti invents the hypercar Bugatti, based in Molsheim, France, effectively invented the "hypercar" segment with initial v-max runs of 253.81mph in the 1000bhp Veyron, rising with the Super Sport Veyron to (267.856mph) and now with the world's fastest roadster: the Mistral. Rolls-Royces have on their dashboards a "power reserve" dial, emphasising just how unchallenged the engine is in most circumstances. Tucked off to the left of the instrument binnacle on a Mistral, with its central 500kmh (310.686mph) speedometer, alongside the rising bar of the tachometer, is a parallel instrument notated from zero to 1600. It provides information about how much of the Mistral's available power you're using. Those numbers relate, of course, to bhp. Most of the time, in "normal" driving, a feat remarkably well within the lower-demands of Mistral usage given its F1++ power output, that bar barely flickers above zero bhp being troubled, everyday trundle-pace drawing on EV battery power. At the top, "1600" keeps drawing your attention, a short-term obsession, progressively more aggressive right-foot-flexing producing acceleration during gaps in traffic that would embarrass mere supercars. But even acceleration beyond anything I'd experienced (we're talking in McLaren, Lamborghini and Ferrari), an eye-flick to that power-use gauge sees it nonchalantly nudging a traffic-restricted peak of around 650bhp. Bugatti's "Pilote Officiel" urges deployment of 1600bhp My "minder", decorated racing driver Bruno Spengler, 41, and now Bugatti's "Pilote Officiel" is happily urging me on, he having earlier demonstrated what all 1600bhp feels like during a lucky, and safe, break in traffic, a piece of luck that continues to evade me... Then the two-lane highway suddenly opens up, Citroens and Audis peeling aside, a VW van being the last to present me with an open ribbon of road I hope by now is somewhere in neighbouring Germany. "Go," says Bruno. The speed of the human brain can be impressive. I floor the throttle, but before that ultra-slow-motion split second between starting to floor it and it meeting the firewall something in my mind causes me to back off a fraction. All that human brain computing power calculates, in perhaps a nano-second, a vast array of factors and parameters and, in this instance, came to the conclusion: "Iain, 1600bhp going through four driven wheels to the road is perhaps not a great idea right now, mainly because in doing so you'll be accelerating not just faster than you ever have, but faster than probably 99.9% of the world's driving population has ever experienced. Floor it properly later when you know what to expect." So I backed off. To just over 1000bhp. I'll restate that. Just over 1000bhp. My own 330bhp BMW is fast. I've driven the likes of Lamborghinis to not-far-short of 200mph, , and my Honda 1000 superbike barely breaks a sweat in muscle-flexing alongside supercars. 1000bhp proves to be the traffic-restricted maximum But that now-eternal mental snapshot is still the deployment of 1000bhp, while my memory stores a recording of the brain's gyros registering forces never previously experienced. Because I now know what 1000bhp feels like for a few seconds, I think I can imagine the sensation personally deploying 1600bhp would bring. Years ago I raced cars, but the Mistral's performance brings into starker focus what F1 drivers achieve for 90 minutes or more in their 800kg, 1000bhp cars (a Mistral weights over 2000kg with driver). And they always seem to be for more power. Pulling back into Bugatti's grounds, Bruno pays me the sort of compliment you'd want on your cv, and, let's face it, guys, the sort of thing you wish other people had overheard: "I wouldn't have let you try that if you weren't a relaxed and very good driver." Aw, shucks. The Mistral is more than a straight-line rocket The Mistral isn't just an absolute rocket in a straight line, it's a great handling car with enormous grip. I exited every corner believing I could have entered it twice as fast, the specially-developed Michelin tyres untroubled. The brakes wouldn't be out of place on a Boeing 787, and the quality, design, detail and sheer craftsmanship of the Mistral admirable. Those details of design and engineering abound once you take pause and walk around the car. After parking up, the rear spoiler remains deployed so hot air can be vented out of the engine bay, progressively closing as the engine cools. Stick a finger between spoiler and rear panel, and it stops lowering, designed to prevent small fingers of mesmerised children being trapped. It may be immensely fast and powerful, but perhaps the only thing stopping you using it more than storing it is its value. You can only use what it offers for seconds at a time, rarely attempt to v-max it, and then only on a limited number of private straight-line tracks or runways. But that's perhaps what makes it special. It'll always have the potential, but the few opportunities to realise that potential will be etched on your mind for eternity.
