Porsche has revealed that changes will be made to the driver line-up of its factory 963 LMDh cars competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship next season.
The planned revisions to Porsche Penske Motorsport’s two-car programmes in each series will not be radical and will be announced before the end of the current WEC season, in early November in Bahrain.
PPM CEO Jonathan Diuguid told Motorsport.com: “The 2025 driver line-ups will not be radically different to this year’s. All options are on the table and we are getting closer; we hope to have some news before the end of the WEC season.”
Porsche LMDh program manager Urs Kuratle reiterated Diuguid’s position: “There will be changes and we are close to an announcement, which will happen before the end of the season. The lineups will not be the same as this year, but we are not 100% there yet, only 99%.”
Asked whether there will be a driver reshuffle among the four 963 LMDhs as for 2024, Kuratle replied: “This is part of the missing 1 percent.”
Andlauer could be in contention for Porsche Penske switch for 2025
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
There appears to be at least one newcomer to the PPM line-up: Porsche-registered Julien Andlauer is said to be in contention for a seat in one of the WEC or IMSA teams next year after impressing at the wheel of Proton Competition’s 963.
One possibility seems to be to insert him into the IMSA team in place of Dane Cameron.
Porsche is also known to have considered downsizing its WEC lineup to run two drivers per car in the six-hour races, as Cadillac has done this year. If the German team decides to go that route, PPM could use drivers from its IMSA program for the longer WEC races, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In this scenario, with only eight full-time drivers, PPM would be one short if Porsche decided to field three factory cars at Le Mans again.
Porsche should be free to follow this path, because the proposed rule change that required three drivers per car in Hypercars appears to have been rejected by the manufacturers.
Diuguid revealed at the WEC race in Austin in September that Porsche was against this. The only change to PPM’s lineup this season was the swapping of Cameron and Matt Campbell between championships.
Cameron moved from the WEC to partner Felipe Nasr in IMSA, while Campbell moved in the opposite direction to join Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen.
Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet continued their partnership in IMSA, while Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor remained together in the WEC and are on course to secure the Hypercar drivers’ title.
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