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Splitting Jaminet, Campbell “Not a Black and White Decision”

Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach on decision-making process for driver lineups…

Photo: Jordan Lenssen/Pfaff Motorsports

The decision to place Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell in separate Porsche 963s was not a crystal-clear call according to Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach, who said that a number of factors were at play in assembling its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship driving squads.

Jaminet and Campbell, who won the 2022 IMSA GTD Pro title together in a Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, will be racing against each other in Porsche Penske Motorsport’s GTP class operation this year, with the 28-year-old Frenchman paired with Nick Tandy in the No. 6 car and Campbell with former DPi champion Felipe Nasr in the No. 7 entry.

They’ll be joined by Dane Cameron and Michael Christensen, respectively, for next weekend’s season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

While having expressed a desire to continue as co-drivers, Porsche and Team Penske elected to split the duo up, as is also the case with longtime GTE-Pro co-drivers Christensen and Kevin Estre in the WEC lineup.

“We have driver lineups for WEC and IMSA, and this means a lot of drivers,” Laudenbach explained of the ten-driver team it has assembled.

“What we tried to do was to make a good mixture between drivers that already know the IMSA series and know us, [and] at the same time to get young kids in.

“The main point was to have a good mixture with guys knowing American motorsport but at the same time achieving a situation where we have two very strong driver lineups for both championships.

“It’s not only that we sit together and put the names on the table and say, ‘This is how it is.’ Of course we talked to the drivers. We talked to them on which way they felt confident.

“In the end, we made the decision, that’s no question. But all in all, I think for both championships, we have a good solution now.”

When asked directly about the Jaminet and Campbell situation, Laudenbach admitted that some deliberation took place, with pros and cons having been determined.

“Everything we do has a reason, that’s clear,” he said.

“We put it on the table and said, ‘Should we keep these two guys together?’ It has advantages, no question, if you talk about Mathieu and Matt.

“They’re good friends, they came along with each other very well; they got the championship in the GTD Pro [class].

“We discussed that on should we let them drive in one car or should we split them up?

“In the end there were a lot of arguments to go left, to go right. Don’t forget if you split them up, you have two good friends in two separate cars because we want to have the cars working together.

“Of course there was a reason but it for sure was not a black and white decision.”

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John

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