Vanthoor: Maintaining WEC Team Package “Quite Important”

Photo: Porsche

Laurens Vanthoor said keeping as much of their team package intact from the FIA World Endurance Championship was “quite important” amid his and Kevin Estre’s switch to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The 2024 Hypercar drivers’ world champions will embark on their first full-season GTP class campaign following the Porsche’s withdrawal from the top class of the WEC, with the driving duo joined by Matt Campbell for at least the first two endurance races of the season.

Vanthoor, a two-time IMSA class champion, will be embarking on his first full-time program in the U.S. since winning the 2021 GTD title with Pfaff Motorsports.

“As soon as we figured out that we were going to do full-time IMSA, we obviously tried to bring our good team package that we had in WEC over here,” he told Sportscar365.

“That meant keeping Kevin and me together, together with Matt and also our performance engineer.

“To keep that group and that knowledge and the teamwork together from what we had in WEC over the past years, I think it was quite important.

“That worked out. I’m looking forward to being here.

“We won WEC two years ago. It would be a pretty cool story to also win the IMSA championship in GTP with Porsche Penske. That’s the goal.”

Estre added: “It’s basically a lot of the 6 [car] spirit from WEC that came over here. We kept Matt and JD (Jonathan Diuguid) on the pit wall, the 6 [car] spirit from IMSA last year, so I hope it’s going to be a good mix.

“Bringing some different mentality from both championships and trying to get the best out of it, which suits this championship, which is obviously different.”

For Estre, it will mark the Frenchman’s first full season IMSA campaign after contesting eight of the 11 GTD races in 2014 aboard a Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America, which was his only previous WeatherTech Championship effort outside of more recent two or three-race campaigns.

“I’m really happy to do a full season in IMSA,” he said. “Of course I’m missing some stuff in WEC but on the other hand it’s a new challenge.

“The tracks are more challenging, [have] more character with more adrenaline, a different type of racing.

“Laurens knows it more than me but still in this class and all that, to have people that you’ve been working with the last three, four years or even more, is a big help to make sure you’re straight away ready to win races and to fight.

“Of course we’ve been here, being the third driver for many years now, and we know most of the team but for sure, doing the full championship is different.

“It’s quite a different approach. The racing is quite different compared to WEC so you have to be ready to adapt a little bit as a driver.

“For sure the more people you can get together to work that has experience before, the better it is.”

Out of the nine GTP tracks on the 2026 calendar, Estre has yet to race at three of them: the downtown Detroit street circuit, Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and, remarkably, Watkins Glen International.

“We are planning to do a test in Watkins and I hope it’s going to happen,” he said. “It would be good for me. It looks like an amazing track.

“I haven’t missed many of the U.S. tracks but for sure this one was the one and it’s going to be an important race. I can’t wait.”

John Dagys

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