Diuguid: Porsche Penske Ready to “Take the Fight” to Toyota

Photo: Porsche

Porsche Penske Motorsport is targeting to “take the fight” to Toyota Gazoo Racing as the Roger Penske-owned squad enters its second FIA World Endurance Championship season.

The German manufacturer, which along with fellow LMDh entrant Cadillac ended up winless in WEC competition last year yet will be riding into next month’s season-opening Qatar 1812km with overall victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona to its credit.

Porsche Penske has also increased its engineering personnel for the upcoming campaign in the hopes of being able to fight the five-time and defending world champions.

When asked if the ten-hour enduro could put all Hypercar manufacturers on a more level playing field at least for the start of the season, Porsche Penske managing director Jonathan Diuguid downplayed any potential upper hand.

The majority of the returning Hypercar manufacturers, including Porsche Penske, Ferrari AF Corse and Toyota, all tested at the Lusail International Circuit in late November in a group test.

“I think any of these new circuits we go to… Toyota was there testing with us, and so was Ferrari, so they’ve got the same exposure that we did,” Diuguid told Sportscar365.

“But in general, our team is getting stronger every event we do. I think you see that across all the championships.

“Our focus is to take the fight to them. We’re not there to race for second place or the first LMDh car.

“Our goal is to take the fight to them and we’ll keep trying to do that.”

Diuguid noted Porsche Penske’s ramped up approach has been taken with an eye on Toyota’s seasoned operation.

“It just goes to show you that we’re making sure we’re doing our job too as well to make sure we’re prepared with all of our tools and all of our software and everything is set up perfectly to go racing with Toyota,” he said.

“That’s what they can rely on. They have all these processes and these things in place. And they’re quite efficient with the people they do have and they execute when they’re on track.

“That’s going to be our main focus, to the do the same and compete with them at that high level, regardless of what the BoP or the performance is, it’s our job to do the best we can and we’re going to try to take the fight to them.”

When asked if he believes a LMDh car will score a victory this season, after going winless in 2023, Diuguid said “it’s tough to say.”

“The competition level in WEC and IMSA is the highest it’s ever been,” he added. “In the past, even when it was [Audi], Porsche and Toyota racing against each other, that’s three manufacturers you’re talking about.

“Now you’re talking about six or seven and all are extremely competitive teams. I think that’s the beauty of what the WEC is.

“If we are lucky enough to win, or a LMDh wins, I think it’s because they deserve it and they executed and took the day because nothing’s going to come for free over there this year.”

For newly crowned overall Rolex 24 winner Matt Campbell, who moves into a full-time WEC role swapping seats with Dane Cameron, the Australian said he’s hoping to carry over some of the team’s early season success.

“It’s all about momentum,” Campbell said. “Winning helps everything but the competition is still stiff, just like it was last year.

“We’re going to take some of the learning from Daytona and try to apply them. It’s a constant development process with software and other systems.

“Every time we race, we learn something, and we’re going to try to take some of those learnings to Qatar and start the WEC foot off on the same foot that we started the IMSA one.”

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