JOTA to Run Single LMP2 Alongside Porsche LMDh in 2023

JOTA will run a single LMP2 entry in the FIA World Endurance Championship next year alongside its planned Porsche LMDh effort in preparation for a potential future two-car operation in the top class.

Team co-owner David Clark told Sportscar365 at the WEC season finale in Bahrain that his squad will remain in the secondary prototype class with a single Oreca 07 Gibson, even as it makes the step up to the Hypercar ranks next year.

According to Clark, the team then hopes to eventually phase out its LMP2 effort completely if it is able to take delivery of a second Porsche 963.

Sportscar365, however, understands that a second batch of customer Porsche 963s may not come until 2025.

“We’re going to run the Porsche and we’ll run the LMP2 car for one year and then hopefully we get a two-car entry for two Porsches either for 2024 or 2025,” Clark told Sportscar365.

The Briton explained that the team will run the LMP2 car to prepare itself for a potential two-car Porsche effort, adding it will be “the end of an era” once it steps away from the class.

JOTA has been one of the leading lights in LMP2 competition in the past decade, securing three class victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and currently leads the class standings heading into this weekend’s season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain.

Clark indicated that the team will run its No. 28 car in LMP2 with the No. 38 entry instead moving up to Hypercar.

“The LMP2 [entry] will be in the same garage, but it will be a totally separate thing,” he added.

“Otherwise it’ll become a problem and you’re only allowed a certain amount of people on the LMDh side. So it will be a separate team in the same garage.”

Clark said the number of Porsche personnel running the squad’s Hertz-backed car will be limited next year.

He believes the team will be able to get up to speed quickly with the car as it has frequently been attending Porsche’s LMDh test sessions.

“Multimatic are going to run the customer side of it,” said Clark. “I think by the time we get the car we’ll be fairly up to speed, but you can never beat the practical running of the car.

“We’re at every test. Every Porsche test, JOTA have been at. So we’re gradually really getting into it.

“We created our own opportunity, no one gave it to us. So I think we’ve created the opportunity we have, I think you have to give everything 100 percent.

“If you’re not there, you will never get the information, you never see the things or pick up any things.

“So we’ve decided to go to every Porsche test and they’ve been very welcoming as well. I can’t say enough good things about them.”

JOTA’s future in GT racing, meanwhile, still remains undecided.

The British squad has campaigned a single McLaren 720S GT3 in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS in recent years.

Clark noted that JOTA would likely stick with McLaren if it were to continue its GT3 effort, although he emphasized that it would be important for it not to compromise the Hypercar class program.

“It’s very easy to stretch yourself,” he said. “Having got the pinnacle of running the Porsche, I don’t think anything should really get in the way of that. So we haven’t made any decision yet on GT racing.”