Porsche revives factory race team

Porsche will revive its in-house factory team for its return to the prototype ranks in 2014.

The German manufacturer’s forthcoming LMP1 hybrid will be run by a full works team based at its Weissach research and development headquarters.

This facility near Stuttgart is where Porsche’s first outright contender for Le Mans 24 Hours honours since 1998 is being designed, developed and built.

Porsche R&D boss Wolfgang Hatz made the announcement at Porsche’s Night of Champions awards ceremony on Saturday evening.

“The car will be run by our own works team based here at Weissach,” he said.

Porsche has upgraded its motorsport facility since its last major programme with the RS Spyder LMP2, which was run by the works Penske team in the US and by customer teams in Europe.

It is understood that approximately 200 people are working on the P1 project.

Hatz said that the new Porsche LMP1 is due to run in the middle of next year.

The only other news on the project was the confirmation of a restructuring of Porsche Motorsport, with former BMW man Fritz Enzinger taking control of the P1 project and head of motorsport Hartmut Kristen retaining control of the manufacturer’s 911-based programmes.

The majority of Porsche’s 16 Le Mans wins have come with teams run direct from the factory. That number includes its final victory with the 911 GT1-98 more than 14 years ago.

Porsche will run a factory team for the first time since 1998 in next year’s FIA World Endurance Championship as it develops its new 991-shape 911 RSR GTE contender. The car will be run in conjunction with Manthey Racing under the Porsche AG Team Manthey banner.

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/porsche-revives-factory-race-team

Keith Greene Masten Gregory Cliff Griffith Georges Grignard Bobby Grim