WEC | Porsche defends itself: “Damage limited with perfection”

Porsche returns home from Austin with a one-two lead in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship standings, following a far from easy Lone Star Le Mans for the 963s.

The LMDh cars run by Team Penske had a tough time of it all weekend in Austin and only a dramatic finale involving penalties and mistakes from others allowed Estre/Lotterer/Vanthoor to take sixth place in their #6, despite receiving a Drive Through penalty towards the end, followed by the #5 of Makowiecki/Christensen/Campbell, which was slowed down right at the start when the team had to call it back to the pits to remove the protective tag placed on the pitot tube above the cockpit.

This still meant that the #6 trio could remain in command among the drivers with a +12 over the Ferraris Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen, joined in second place by Conway/Kobayashi/De Vries of the #7 Toyota, while the German manufacturer slipped to second place just behind the Japanese among the constructors with a -11 to recover.

“The race was not entirely smooth for both factory cars and I don’t think we had the pace to fight for the win, so we will have to look at the situation,” admits Porsche Penske Motorsport CEO Jonathan Diuguid.

“The problem is that Ferrari and Toyota seem to be able to have the right pace when they want and if they decide to win. We, on the other hand, to stay even close, have to be perfect. I think in Austin third or fourth place was our potential, but we lost 43″ with the #5 to remove a piece that was obstructing the engine intake and making us lose power, with temperatures rising quickly”.

“Since Le Mans, Ferrari and Toyota have been quicker than us and seem to have found a good rhythm, while the LMDh cars are struggling. Now it’s up to us to make the right choice for the next race in Japan and get back among the frontrunners. The situation in all the championship standings is still very close, our goal has not changed: we are here to win the titles and whoever wins at Fuji will be able to go to Bahrain as leaders.”

#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Lotterer also tries to see the glass half full, acknowledging the difficult moment: “Once again we showed that we can limit the damage through good calls in terms of strategy, if it hadn’t been for the Drive Through, fifth place would probably have been within reach, but our comeback was still decent after a disappointing qualifying that saw us finish in 14th place”.

“But we still managed to finish sixth, which is a good result given the situation. It was the first weekend where not everything went perfectly and the #5 was much better than us; it qualified well and had a better pace in the race. We need to understand what happened, we had some difficulties with the car. Despite that, we gained important points and we are still leading the drivers’ championship.”

Makowiecki added: “Unfortunately we had to make an unscheduled pit stop very early, which is a real shame. However, there are also many positives: our pace was very good and I think we can be proud of the work we have done. At the beginning of the weekend our car was difficult to drive. But for the start of the race we made a lot of progress.”

Urs Kuratle, Porsche LMDh works programme director, comments: “Today was anything but easy, our drivers did not have the cars with the best set-up available, neither in qualifying nor in the race. In addition, we had to deal with scorching heat, which put the drivers and the team to the test.”

“Our guys at the wheel did a great job and the team made perfect pit stops. We’re not very happy with the results, but we did what we could in the circumstances we found ourselves in.”