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Proton: Customer Porsche 963 Could Debut After Le Mans

Post-24 Hours of Le Mans debut possible for Proton Competition’s Porsche LMDh…

Photo: Juergen Tap/Porsche

Proton Competition would consider delaying the debut of its customer Porsche 963 until after the 24 Hours of Le Mans according to team owner Christian Ried.

The German squad is one of two teams to have signed up for the FIA World Endurance Championship season with Porsche’s new LMDh car, however it won’t receive the vehicle until the end of April as per the manufacturer’s delivery plan.

Ried confirmed that Proton will forgo the third round of the campaign at Spa, which takes place at the end of the week when Porsche’s LMDh customers are due to get their 963s.

He estimated that Proton would need around ten days of testing to get acquainted with the hybrid-powered machine before stepping into competition.

“We are waiting for the car,” Ried told Sportscar365.

“When the car is there, we have to do some test days before we go to the first race. Just to pick the car up from Weissach and go to Spa, that will never happen.”

With a 6 Hours of Spa appearance off the cards, the uncertainty turns to whether Proton Competition and Hertz Team JOTA will be ready to enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 10-11.

It is understood that the two independent teams are not required to enter Spa before Le Mans because the Porsche 963 model will appear at the former courtesy of the Porsche Penske Motorsport factory squad.

“It really depends on when we get the car and how is the car, in terms of systems, after Daytona and Sebring,” said Ried, referring to the 963’s first races with the works team.

“If there is still trouble or it’s not sorted, we won’t go to Le Mans.

“We will do Le Mans only if we have the trust that we can do well. If not, it will be better to skip it and maybe start in Monza or Fuji.”

Proton is contesting next weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona with an Oreca 07 Gibson to give its crew a prototype race before embarking on a dual-series LMDh program.

The team is also running a separate Porsche 963 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, but it’s not yet clear when that car will race for the first time.

Ried said that Proton’s engineers have attended tests with the Penske factory team to inform their understanding of the package.

“We did our programs around LMDh,” he added. “LMDh is on the top, but we give ourselves the time to prepare [for] it properly.

“We don’t go in a rush. It’s not worth it to risk anything. We really want to do well.”

Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.

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