Leutwiler Completes No. 46 Project 1 Porsche Crew

Michelin Le Mans Cup champion Niki Leutwiler will make his full-season FIA World Endurance Championship debut this year driving for Team Project 1 in the GTE-Am class.

Leutwiler has been named by Project 1 as the designated Bronze-rated driver in its No. 46 Porsche 911 RSR-19 ahead of next weekend’s season-opener at Sebring.

The Swiss will share the wheel with Matteo Cairoli and Mikkel Pedersen who drove different Dinamic Motorsport-run Porsche 911 GT3 Rs in Fanatec GT World Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup last year.

Leutwiler’s name was on the side of the No. 46 Porsche at Sebring yesterday and he was subsequently shown on the official entry list for this weekend’s Prologue test.

Project 1 has indicated that the lineup of Leutwiler, Cairoli and Pedersen is set to contest the full six-round WEC season.

“We didn’t compete at Sebring in the last two years, so we’re all the more excited about starting the season in the US”, said team principal Axel Funke.

“We’ve lined up a powerful trio which can fight for wins thanks to its speed and experience.”

Leutwiler won the Le Mans Cup GT3 class title in a GT3-spec Porsche run by TFT Racing. He mainly shared the wheel with Julien Andlauer but the Frenchman missed out on sharing the title spoils because he missed one race.

Although TFT won the drivers’ championship, Iron Lynx claimed the team’s title and so earned the Le Mans Cup’s automatic invitation to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Leutwiler is new to the WEC full-season grid, although has taken part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans before with his most recent appearance coming in 2016.