Porsche to “Harvest A Lot More” After First LMDh Campaign

Photo: Porsche

Porsche is looking to “harvest a lot more” in the years to come with its LMDh program following an “upward curve” for the Porsche Penske Motorsport squad in its first year of operation according to Head of Porsche Motorsport Thomas Laudenbach.

The German manufacturer, which was one of only two brands to undertake dual-season efforts in the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, had mixed fortunes with its factory Porsche 963s, which failed to win in WEC competition but picked up a season-tying three wins in the WeatherTech Championship.

It was combined by a less-than stellar outing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans that saw all three of its Porsche Penske-entered cars hit trouble over the course of the French endurance classic.

“Clearly on the negatives, we cannot be happy with our Le Mans this year,” Laudenbach said. “There were too many mistakes in various areas without going into the details.

“Looking at the overall WEC season, I think very positive is a clear tendency that we managed to get performance into the car.

“In the first half of the season we really were able to carry out performance testing work, which I think worked in a very clear tendency, which is good.

“Also on the positive side, if we look at where we are in P3 in the manufacturers’ championship is not too bad.

“It’s clearly not where we want to be, clearly not where Porsche belongs but I think we gave ourselves a very difficult task with entering in two championships at the same time, working with a new-old partner, building up a team in Mannheim and doing customer cars.

“All in all, every single decision was good and correct.

“Everything together just made it very difficult for us. I think in the result you can see it took longer for us to make the steps we wanted that we had in mind.

“But again, it was a clear curve upwards, which is positive.”

When asked about the team’s end-of-season gains in the WeatherTech Championship, which saw both cars visit victory lane and remain in contention for the GTP drivers’ title at the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans, Laudenbach pointed out the unique nature of IMSA competition.

“Don’t forget we have a different competition situation in [WEC] than we have in IMSA,” he said.

“I think in IMSA, it’s a bit easier to judge because we only have LMDh cars and probably in IMSA it’s a bit more obvious.

“But don’t forget that we come to the benefit of the structure that we have, in that we work with one partner in the WEC and IMSA, so there is a strong exchange. You can always consider that a step we make in one championship we also do in the other one.

“The competition is different and it might not be that obvious [in WEC] but I think if you look at IMSA it’s very clear about the steps we made.”

While Porsche could have opted for a two-team approach for the dual series effort, Laudenbach said they made some early sacrifices by opting with Penske in the WEC, which built up a brand-new team in Germany.

“It was probably not the easiest one because we could have chosen a team that already existed, yes,” he said.

“But we do long-term thinking. And long-term thinking is for sure not only one year.

“Long-term thinking is that can we get the benefit over the years and that’s a clear ‘Yes’ because we got a huge advantage in that it’s a lot easier to exchange data to work very closely together if you only have one partner and not two.

“It’s Porsche’s long-term thinking. We’re not in and out.”

Laudenbach said there’s still more to come from the Porsche-Penske partnership heading into Year 2.

“I know the expectation is high and our own expectations are very high,” he said. “But since being for decades in motorsport, I’m also realistic.

“It was a tough task and the goal is very clear: we want to be up front, P1, that’s where Porsche needs to be.

“Let’s be realistic, it’s the first year. We just have to be realistic and say, ‘Yes, please don’t mix it up.’

“Even the first year we do everything to be P1. But it was a huge task. Besides the task that I’d love to be in P1 in any championship in the first year, I think it’s very positive to see our tendency.

“The right decisions have been made. Hopefully we can harvest a lot more in the upcoming years for sure. What do we expect? We clearly expect to make steps forward. That concerns the performance of the car, strategic decisions, operational things.

“You win races by having everything right. That’s nothing new.”

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