Jani: “One Man Show” Proton Needs Porsche to Share More

Neel Jani has asked Porsche to share more information with its customer FIA World Endurance Championship team Proton Competition, which he described as a “one-man show” following a disappointing 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The No. 99 Porsche 963 shared by Jani, Nico Pino and Nico Varrone ended up 13th in the final results and four laps down, with a larger pace deficit to the works Porsche Penske Motorsport cars than had been seen in the opening three rounds of the WEC season.

Proton’s unremarkable showing contrasted with its sole rival in the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams, the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P that won the race outright.

While the No. 83 Ferrari is operated as an effective extension of the works AF Corse team, with factory driver Yifei Ye part of the lineup, Proton operates completely independently of Penske and has no access to any of its data or setups.

Jani says that this year’s Le Mans result should prompt a change of approach from Porsche for future seasons.

“As usual, we had partially good pace but not for the whole race,” Jani told Sportscar365. “That is the difficulty of working alone.

“Ferrari shows how you can work with customer teams. When you look at that, you have to say Ferrari is doing everything correctly. The customer team has full access to everything and it benefits Ferrari.

“But at the moment, we are just a one-man show. We have no idea about anything. That’s the main reason why we are there sometimes but never for a whole race. We are just there when everything happens to work well.

“This is someone that everyone should think about, because it would only benefit Porsche [to help us]. 

“If there were other customer teams, you could discuss it, but at the moment there is nobody else.”

Jani’s remarks follow the introduction of two Evo jokers on the 963 for this year’s Le Mans: a suspension update, which Porsche revealed at the start of the year, and a subsequent aero revision that it confirmed to Sportscar365 last week.

The Swiss driver said Proton’s problems are compounded by its usual setup concept not gelling well with the new specification, particularly the revised suspension.

“We didn’t know why they developed it,” said Jani. “It’s very difficult for us to figure out how to use it and which setup concept it works with.”

While disappointed with Proton’s pace, Jani admitted the team was “unlucky” to go a lap down just prior to the one and only safety car of the race, speculating that the team could have fought for tenth place had it remained on the lead lap.

Further time for the No. 99 car was lost when Jani was hit by one of the Cadillacs around mid-distance at Mulsanne Corner, causing wheel rim damage, while the team also suffered problems with its brake ducts in the closing stages of the race.

Proton’s hopes of beating AF Corse to the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams hang by a thread after the No. 83 Ferrari took the maximum haul of 50 points to extend its advantage over the No. 99 Porsche to 57 points with four races to go.

It means the No. 83 car only needs to finish the remaining races to guarantee the title.