WEC | Porsche: “Crucial customers if brands abandon hypercars”

The WEC is booming following the revision of the regulations, with as many as nineteen Hypercars entered in 2024, representing nine different manufacturers. Never before have so many manufacturers been involved in the WEC premier class since the start of the series.

Although this development is generally regarded as the advent of a golden age, Laudenbach warns that there is no guarantee that these builders will maintain their long-term commitment. The Porsche Motorsport vice-president fears that if the big manufacturers were to abandon, too few private individuals could save the situation, as Alpine, Glickenhaus and Rebellion did when Toyota was the only manufacturer still involved in the premier class of the WEC, after Audi and Porsche had left the series at the end of 2010.

Porsche now supplies two 963s to Jota and another to Proton Competition, but no other manufacturer has proposed a proper customer car programme, “which is a shame” according to Laudenbach. Ferrari's third 499P, without any official involvement from the Prancing Horse, is still managed by the same AF Corse team.

“I think it's a little sad that none of the others did customer cars,” he added. “If you look at the lineups, you can probably argue that we don't need customer cars. We have enough factories. I've been in the business long enough, for me it's hard to imagine that for ten years or so we will have so many manufacturers in the championship. I don't know if anyone remembers a decade with so many brands. I can't.”

“Then the day will come when all of us will try to make sure that endurance racing lives a long time, because we love this sport, because we love endurance racing. Then everyone will be happy to have customer cars. Therefore, I think we should treat them well in moments of grace. And we are the only ones who do it.”

However, Laudenbach admits that having customer teams has not made Porsche's life easier in the Hypercar class: “We have to provide support, which is an effort, not in the sense that your customers like to beat you. At the same time, we do everything to provide them with a good car.”

This includes providing the same upgrades as the factory team: “I believe our philosophy is very good, in that we treat our customers fairly. If there are changes in performance, one thing is for sure: customers will always have our own specifications, 100%. They're required by regulations. And it's also a clear philosophy that works quite well.”

Last year, Porsche's first customer car (the Jota #38 driven by Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens and Yifei Ye, ed) had limited success, finishing the season without a single podium (while Porsche took two in total), despite leading the 24 Hours of Le Mans by eight laps. Participating in the last three rounds of the season, car no. Proton's 99 struggled even more, even though his philosophy was to learn and build for the future.