Heriau Switches from Ferrari to Porsche, Joins Manthey

Francois Heriau will make the switch from Ferrari to Porsche machinery for the upcoming Asian Le Mans Series season, joining the lineup for the No. 92 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The Frenchman was confirmed on Thursday as the mandatory Bronze-rated co-driver for the previously named Richard Lietz, with the Silver driver for the No. 92 car to be revealed at a later date.

Heriau, 42, joins Manthey after two years of racing with AF Corse across multiple series, most notably driving one of the team’s Ferrari 296 GT3s in the FIA World Endurance Championship, the current season of which is set to wrap up in Bahrain next week.

“I’m really happy to join Manthey and Porsche for the upcoming ALMS season,” Heriau said.

“As a GT driver and current competitor in the WEC, I have witnessed how strong the whole team and Richard are.

“I’m eager to start the challenge of the ALMS together with everyone involved and believe that we are very well positioned to fight for the title together as a team. That is the clear goal.”

Manthey are the defending champions in the Asian Le Mans Series’ GT category, eventually finishing 1-2 in the championship with its two cars during the previous season.

As previously confirmed as part of the initial entry list release last month, the sister No. 10 Porsche will feature two-thirds of last season’s title-winning crew as Antares Au and Klaus Bachler return to partner up with Loek Hartog.

“We are very proud and excited to be competing again with two cars in the 2025/26 ALMS season,” said Manthey managing director Patrick Arkenau.

“After delivering a strong performance in our debut season, in which we won the championship title and also finished second in the overall standings, we are highly motivated going into the new season.

“We are delighted to be working with last year’s champions, Antares Au and Klaus Bachler, once again.

“Since Joel Sturm has been reclassified as a gold driver, Loek Hartog will be joining the two of them, and having already worked very well together at Le Mans, we are confident that he will be an excellent addition to the team.

“There is also a change for our second car: our current competitor in the WEC, François Hériau, who has been delivering impressive performances in the series, will be joining us in the ALMS from December onwards.

“We are very much looking forward to the challenge of competing in the series with a driver we have not worked with before, and we will be giving it our all in every race. Our goal is clear: to defend the championship title.”