
Photo: Porsche
While the presentation of Porsche’s 919 Hybrid took center stage in Geneva, the German manufacturer has also confirmed the driver lineup for its factory GTE-Pro program in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The Olaf Manthey-run squad, which scored a 1-2 finish in last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, returns with a reshuffled driver lineup, due to some of its drivers moving to Porsche’s other works programs in LMP1 or in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
Both Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Pilet, co-drivers in the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR last year, return to the FIA WEC program and are joined by fellow factory drivers Marco Holzer and new signing Fred Makowiecki.
Driver pairings for the Nos. 91 and 92 entries have yet to be confirmed.
Richard Lietz and Nick Tandy will complete the lineup for Le Mans. Both are among the full-season pilots in Porsche North America’s TUDOR Championship program, which is fresh off class victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
As is the case with its new LMP1 entries, the pair of Porsche Team Manthey 911 RSRs will carry the “Porsche Intelligent Performance” lettering on the cars.
Porsche will again go up against the likes of Aston Martin Racing and Ferrari (AF Corse) in the GTE-Pro ranks, which proved to offer some of the most competitive racing in the FIA WEC last year.
The eight-round championship kicks off at Silverstone next month.
