Porsche 963 in IMSA and WEC

WECIMSAHyperCar

May 6

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Sebring: both WEC **Porsche 963** concluded with a fifth and sixth place.

Despite leading the IMSA drivers’ championship with Tandy and Jaminet driving Porsche 963 #6 thanks to their victory in Long Beach, Porsche Penske Motorsport faces tougher times in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) with only one podium (#6 at Portimao), P4 at Spa, P5 and P6 at Sebring, one abandon (#6 at Spa) and a P35 overall 33 laps behind the winners (#5 at Portimao).

Porsche is third in both IMSA and WEC manufacturers championships, only 47 points behind the leading Cadillac (1,067 pts) in IMSA but with less than half the points (42 pts) of leading Toyota (90 pts) in WEC.

WEC

During the three first weekends of the WEC championship (Sebring, Portimao and Spa), both cars simply weren’t fast enough being more than 2 seconds slower than the Toyotas in their fastest lap, except at Spa, where #6 Porsche 963 was still 1.494 seconds slower (fastest lap of combined sessions) than pole Toyota.

On top of lacking performance, Porsche 963 faced numerous technical problems with #6 963 stopping on lap 54 with an electrical problem and an electric clutch control preventing Michael Christensen with #5 sister to follow the pace of other Hypercras at Spa, a problem involving the power steering forcing #5 Porsche into the pits for a long repair at Portimao, a fleeting electrical issue for #6 at Sebring.

📷 © Luc Warnotte: Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 at Sebring left; at Portimao right.
At Sebring, both Porsche 963 concluded with fifth and sixth place. At Portimao, Laurens Vanthoor, Kévin Estre and André Lotterer crossed the finish line third with their #6 Porsche 963 while sister #5 ended P35. At Spa, Michael Christensen, Dane Cameron and Frédéric Makowiecki moved back up to third place but had to allow #51 Ferrari to overtake due to the deteriorating performance of the rear tire finishing fourth; #6 abandoned.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps.

“That was a tough day in Spa,” concludes Jonathan Diuguid, Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport. “Our number 6 car retired due to a technical fault – now we have to fully investigate the cause. We did a good job with our number 5 vehicle and opted for an ideal strategy. However, we simply weren’t fast enough. We have to see where we can improve and make further progress. On the operational side, things ran perfectly.” Source: Porsche

Spa was the first race for a Customer Porsche 963 entry with the #38 Hertz Team Jota squad driven by António Félix da Costa, Yifei Ye and William Stevens who was in fourth place before a safety car phase cost the Porsche customer squad a few positions achieving a remarkable result with sixth place.

At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the three Porsche 963 present at Spa will be joined by a fourth Porsche 963 with Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet sharing the #75 cockpit

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Daytona. Dramatic start for Porsche Penske Motorsport at Daytona.

IMSA

The IMSA series season opener at Daytona was simply dramatic as Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President of Porsche Motorsport, concluded: “After just over five hours, the #7 car was thrown out of contention for victory due to an issue with the high-voltage system. Later, our #6 suffered damage to the powertrain. We experienced several problems but at the same time, we were able to learn a great deal. The good thing is, we know where we now stand and what we need to work on. We’ll now prepare systematically for the next race at Sebring in March.” Source: Porsche

At Sebring, both cars were in contention for the double until Mathieu Jaminet in the #6 car and Felipe Nasr in the #7 sister car collided with #10 Acura and retired just 18 minutes before the end of the 12-hour race. Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President of Porsche Motorsport, said: “We underlined today that we’re capable of scoring overall victories in the IMSA series.”

The promising Sebring pace was a beautiful launching pad for Porsche Penske Motorsport works team’s first victory with the Porsche 963 hybrid prototype.

At round three of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the #6 car driven by Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet came out on top after the 100-minute sprint through the streets of Long Beach. Their team colleagues Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr took the flag in third place with the #7 car.

For Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President of Porsche Motorsport, “It was a spectacle from the first to the last lap. Our team chose an optimal strategy and did a perfect job with the pit stops. Our drivers gave their utmost and drove flawlessly without exception despite coming under enormous pressure. This performance was deservedly rewarded with our first victory.” Source: Porsche

Porsche 963 in IMSA and WEC

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