by John Glynn | Nov 6, 2017 | Porsche News, Race and Rally
Porsche may not have won the penultimate round of the 2017 FIA Word Endurance Championship in Shanghai, China, but second and third on the podium was enough to secure the manufacturers’ title in LMP1. The positions also allowed Brendon Hartley, Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard to secure drivers’ world championship titles.
The race took place in cool, dry conditions and began with a hitch for the Porsches, when the Jani/Lotterer/Tandy car had some problems early on and lost time in the pits. The rival Toyotas held first and second until lap 174, when the second Toyota was involved in a crash. That car was forced to pit for repairs and Porsche moved into the podium places, eventually claiming enough points to get the job done.
Quotes from the world champion Porsche Works Drivers
“I was second in the car and stayed there for 76 laps,” said incoming F1 Scuderia Toro Rosso driver, Brendon Hartley. “We lost a lot of downforce in the beginning, so the first stint was hard work. At the stop, we changed the nose which improved this issue. We also had one set of tyres less than all the other cars after we lost one in qualifying, so this was a kind of game over for us. But we definitely have had an incredibly year. Taking the World Championship title after winning Le Mans – it might take a while until it all sinks in. I’ve had a busy few weeks but, sharing this moment with Earl and Timo? I will not forget for the rest of my life.”
“World Champion! It just sounds amazing!” said a delighted Earl Bamber. “The team was fighting hard for it all year and now we’ve grabbed the manufacturers’ and drivers’ world championships. I did a double stint at the start of the race. It was okay but it didn’t look like we were on the right tyre. I just tried to manage the tyre as best as I could for the double stint. The tyres held on well, but we didn’t have a chance against the Toyota. The task was to bring it home in third position which ultimately became second. This weekend is super special. I can hardly believe that I won my first championship with Porsche back in 2013, only four years ago.”
Timo Bernhard echoed the thoughts of his team mates. “The second world championship title: this is kind of crazy and difficult to put in words. It is an honour to drive for the Porsche LMP Team and I am relieved that we have secured both titles here. Now we can face Bahrain a little more relaxed. My stint was good, but of course we knew that a third place finish would be enough. I could have pushed harder but it just wasn’t necessary. Instead we slowed the car down a bit for safety. Toyota was not really within reach today, but the car was reliable and the crew did another sensational job. This is what endurance racing is about. Many, many thanks to everyone and of course to Brendon and Earl.”
With both titles secure, I was sort of expecting Porsche to stay home from Bahrain as it has nothing left to accomplish, but it sounds like the 919 will take to the racetrack for one final event in front of the management board. That will be a fitting send-off for this technical tour de force as Porsche shuts down its LMP1 squad to allegedly focus on a secret F1 programme.
by John Glynn | Oct 30, 2017 | Race and Rally, Porsche News
This weekend’s 6 Hours of Shanghai is the penultimate race for the successful Porsche 919 LMP1 hybrids. It will be Porsche’s second-last race in the premier league of endurance racing.
Current championship leaders, Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley have scored 172 championship points while second-placed Toyota drivers, Nakajima and Buemi, are on 133. Should the Toyota (Nak/Buemi and our hero, Ant Davidson) take maximum points in China and score 26 points, the Porsche trio need to finish the race in at least third position for them to clinch the drivers’ world championship title.
In theory, this should not be difficult. There are only four LMP1 cars taking part, so even if the leaders are running last and Toyota is running first and second, Porsche could apply team orders and move the 919 in front of the sister car. But that assumes they reach the finish, and as we all know, nothing is certain in racing.
Brendon Hartley odds-on for F1 drive
Well, that may not be quite true, as it seems Brendon Hartley is 99% certain to clinch the Toro Rosso drive in 2018. Team boss Franz Tost has been open about Gasly and Hartley as his top picks for next year in press conferences so it’s likely to happen. This is great news for Brendon and a well deserved drive in F1. A final WEC championship title would keep him warm while he battles with the Scuderia’s incoming Honda power unit next year, so we’re all wishing him well with that.
How Hartley might jump from a Toro Rosso drive into the full Red Bull team will also be interesting. Red Bull has Ricciardo and Sainz under contract for the next year or two, and Max is signed up for another three years, so Hartley’s path is not clear cut. Who cares for now: as long as he’s racing in decent cars and on my TV that is all I’m really bothered about. It is clear that Porsche was not getting the sort of spectator engagement in WEC that teams get in F1, so I am still putting money on an F1 entry after the new engine rules are announced.
Porsche wants third WEC crown
“After three consecutive Le Mans overall wins, we also want to get both world championship titles for the third time,” said Fritz Enzinger, Porsche’s LMP chief. “This would be the crown of our LMP1 programme and this is what we are aiming for. At the most recent six-hour race in Japan, we had our first match point but we didn’t succeed. Instead we lost ground to our competitor Toyota. In Shanghai we’ve got our next chance, so staying fully focussed remains our priority.”
by John Glynn | Oct 20, 2017 | Race and Rally, Porsche People
Few things are more important to me than motorsport. While my first love has always been Porsche rally cars, the absolute top line of motorsport in my eyes will always be Formula 1, so I am super excited that 2015 WEC Champion and current WEC series leader, Porsche’s Brendon Hartley, is racing at the US Grand Prix in Austin this weekend in one of James Key’s beautiful Toro Rosso F1 cars.
To me, Hartley is one of the top five drivers in the world and easily capable of winning in F1. A former Red Bull driver and Toro Rosso reserve driver, who was dropped from the Red Bull programme eight years ago for whatever reason, Brendon has been typically candid in his own assessment of how things were back then and insists he is now far more prepared for the psychological challenges of this weekend’s opportunity.
“It’s a dream,” Brendon told Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz in his first interview at Circuit of the Americas. “I have dreamt about this moment all my life and support back home has been crazy. Honestly, I am trying to take the pressure off myself and tell myself “it’s just another race, it’s just another car”. In reality, I know that’s not quite true: it’s not just any other race and it’s not just any other car, but I’m trying to separate myself from that.
“Obviously, the support back home has been incredible. It’s been quite a while since we saw a Kiwi in Formula 1 and we’re very proud people. There’s a few of us in the motorsport world doing a good job, raising the flag at a very high level, but it’s been a long time since one of us was in Formula 1, so I’m well aware of what that means.”
Kravitz asked Brendon’s former Porsche team mate, Nico Hulkenberg, whether he was pleased for his former colleague. “Yeah, it’s fun and quite cool,” said Nico, “I didn’t see that coming. “No,” agreed Ted. “They needed a Red Bull person with a superlicence, so that narrowed it down to [Sebastien] Buemi or him. So I guess it’s him. Would you expect him to pick up this F1 lark pretty easily?”
“Probably a little bit more challenging for him than for Carlos [Sainz, who is switching teams to Renault from this weekend], because he hasn’t sat in an F1 car for quite some time now, but the WEC cars also produce a lot of downforce and he has raced here quite recently, so that should help him, but it will be interesting to see how he feels these cars and how he gets on.”
“I guess it’s a bit of an advantage for me coming here recently,” notes Brendon, “but I think that the biggest ask is driving a modern Formula 1 car and that’s going to be the bigger learning curve. In some ways I feel prepared for this: a lot more prepared than in 2009-2010 when I was a reserve driver. I wasn’t ready at that time.
“I know Max [Verstappen] came in at a very young age, but at that age I wasn’t ready. I’ve learned a lot since then. Being with Porsche in the LMP1 taught me a lot: high pressure scenario, representing Porsche, working with guys like Mark Webber and Timo [Bernhard] and you learn a lot off each other in that environment when you actually work together. So from that side, I feel very prepared and mentally strong.
“Unfortunately, in terms of driving a modern Formula 1 car I’m completely underprepared – i.e. not prepared at all – but I think I’ll know a lot more after Free Practice 1 tomorrow. I’m looking forward to stop talking about what I’m expecting. Just get that first session under way, see how I feel in the car, see where I’m at and then figure out what I’ve got to work on to get towards Sunday afternoon, which is the big debut.”
What’s interesting about the debut is that Hartley himself set the wheels in motion, calling Red Bull’s Helmut Marko when Porsche canned its LMP1 programme earlier this year and offering his services should a spare seat materialise. As the twisted handshakes of the McLaren/Toro Rosso Honda/Renault engine swap deal unwound, it turned out that Toro Rosso had been left without a driver for Austin.
A good performance in Texas could potentially lead to more F1 activity, but Brendon insists that no one has spoken of this as yet and no performance targets have been set. It is hard to imagine that Brendon’s considerable talent won’t find some pace in the car, so that will make all three practice sessions unmissable viewing. Hartley will be off to IndyCar if this doesn’t lead on to better things and F1 will be poorer because of it. Fingers crossed for a great weekend!
by John Glynn | Dec 3, 2016 | Porsche People, Race and Rally
It was not the biggest surprise in motorsport this week, but Porsche has finally confirmed that André Lotterer will race as one of its LMP1 works drivers in 2017, alongside Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy. Weissach has stopped short of putting the new kids/three Le Mans champions in a car on their own: instead, Neel Jani will race with Lotterer/Tandy, while Bamber joins Bernhard/Hartley for the season.
Romain Dumas returns to GTs with new colleagues
The news was announced at the 2016 Night of Champions, along with some other surprising appointments. Romain Dumas returns to the works GT roster, but his next race seat was not announced this evening. Instead Porsche announced two new GT pilots for next year: Dirk Werner and Laurens Vanthoor. Werner is a name most Porsche fans will know, as he raced 911s for a fair while (2004-2009) before heading off to race with BMW in North America. As well as being the 2006 Carrera Cup Deutschland champion, Werner is a two-time Grand AM GT champ and also claimed the Porsche Cup in 2009.
Vanthoor is a proper GT legend. Still only 25 years old, he’s already won the Macau Grand Prix, won the FIA GT championship and won the 24 Hours of both Spa and the Nürburgring. Two weeks ago he won the FIA GT World Cup in Macau (albeit in somewhat controversial circumstances) and he has also won the 12 Hours of Sepang and the 24 Hours of Dubai. When you think that newly-promoted Sven Müller is just one year younger than Vanthoor, it makes you wonder what Müller’s been up to. Then you remember that he’s just won Carrera Cup Deutschland and Supercup titles in the same year, so there’s every reason to look forward to seeing what Müller can do in the new RSR.
Robert Renauer wins 2016 Porsche Cup
The main award at the annual Porsche motorsport prizegiving is always the Porsche Cup, given to that year’s most successful Porsche privateer. The 2016 Porsche Cup winner is Robert Renauer from Germany, who scored an impressive 7,355 points this year driving Porsches in ADAC GT Masters, European Le Mans and the 24-Hour International Endurance series. Wolfgang Porsche presented Renauer with his prize: a 911 Carrera worth €120k. Runners-up Christian Ried and Spain’s Daniel Diaz Varela win €30k and €25k respectively.
Porsche 911 RSRs chase FIA GT and IMSA titles
Porsche has committed to a two-car assault on the first FIA GT manufacturers’ title, but so far has named only three drivers for the two GTE-Pro RSRs: Michael Christensen, Fred Makowiecki and Richard Lietz. Two of this trio will spend some additional time in America, Lietz and Fred Mako teaming up with the IMSA pairings of Pilet/Werner and Estre/Vanthoor for longer events such as Daytona and Sebring.
The full list of factory drivers is below and seems a good combination of youth and experience. Hats off to the team chiefs for some interesting choices: here’s to a great year ahead.
LMP1 – 919 Hybrid #1
Neel Jani (32) Switzerland
André Lotterer (35) Germany
Nick Tandy (32) Great Britain
LMP1 – 919 Hybrid #2
Earl Bamber (26) New Zealand
Timo Bernhard (35) Germany
Brendon Hartley (27) New Zealand
GT Works Drivers
Jörg Bergmeister (40) Germany
Michael Christensen (26) Denmark
Romain Dumas (38) France
Kévin Estre (28) France
Wolf Henzler (41) Germany
Richard Lietz (33) Austria
Frédéric Makowiecki (36) France
Sven Müller (24) Germany
Patrick Pilet (35) France
Patrick Long (35) USA
Laurens Vanthoor (25) Belgium
Dirk Werner (35) Germany
Young Professionals
Matteo Cairoli (20) Italy
Mathieu Jaminet (22) France
Porsche Juniors
Matt Campbell (21) Australia
Dennis Olsen (20) Norway
Thomas Preining (18) Austria
Photo Credit: Brittany Tandy @brittanymx
by John Glynn | Nov 15, 2016 | Race and Rally, Porsche News
Motorsport.com reports that 2015 Le Mans winner, Nick Tandy, and three-time Audi Le Mans winner, André Lotterer, will join the 2017 Porsche LMP1 works driver lineup. Online reports also claim that Earl Bamber may also be moved to LMP1, with Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas said to look vulnerable amongst the current top flight of works pilots.
André Lotterer: Porsche Works Driver?
André’s arrival at Porsche would be a very interesting development. A long-time Porsche fan, André was born in Duisburg, just north of Dusseldorf, to a German-Peruvian father and Belgian mother, but the family moved to Belgium when Andre was three (hat tip Joe Saward). Andre’s dad, Henri, formed the RAS Sport team, which ran the famous red and white Porsche 911 SC RS Belga cars of Droogmans and co. back in the day and one of Andre’s earliest Porsche memories is a spin in that SC RS. His first full car pic on Instagram was the same SC RS: it clearly had a formative influence.
With a private car collection including a Porsche 964 3.8 RS, 2.7 Carrera RS and a Carrera GT, André has Porsche in his blood, so it’s easy to see how the chance of a Porsche driving WEC title, including perhaps a Porsche Le Mans win, would be irresistible. It may also be an indication of Formula E’s attractions, that such a highly successful single-seat racer and long-time Audi champ would rather stay on in sportscars with Porsche, than switch to full electric with Audi.
Porsche Works Driver Reshuffle
Tandy in the same car as Loterrer is a mouth-watering prospect for Porsche fans. Bamber with Tandy and Lotterer would be the icing on the cake. Given the current works driver lineup of more than sixteen full-time contracted pilots, Porsche has an embarassment of riches. It’s hard to second-guess Weissach driver decisions, but my instinct as a fan says they would probably not lose Bernhard or Hartley, so (assuming motorsport.com is correct) perhaps a sideways jump for Jani to join Timo and Brendon, with the three newbies and former Le Mans winners running together.
This would bring Lieb back to 911s, but the SC owner shouldn’t lose too much sleep about that. Next year sees an all-new RSR on track and Lieb/Lietz/Pilet/Estre would be an awesome 911 works driver lineup.
