by John Glynn | Feb 19, 2017 | Race and Rally, Porsche People
The talented Gianmaria Bruni has called time on his 11-year career with Maranello and signed to race with Porsche for the second half of the 2017 season and beyond.
I hadn’t been keeping tabs on works drivers since the shakeup before normal Ferdinand service was interrupted by some French lawyers and assumed Dr Walliser was done with his reshuffle, but, at the end of last year, John Dagys at Sportscar 365 had suggested that Bruni was as good as strapped in a Porsche seat.
Walliser apparently mentioned to Dagys in December how well Bruni would fit within Porsche’s GTE-Pro squad. The story on Sportscar 365 is that Ferrari finally agreed to release Bruni from his contract last week, but only if he would not be racing against his former team – AF Corse – in WEC this year. Porsche has therefore confirmed him on an IMSA deal for the second part of 2017, following an introductory testing programme in June.
What happens after that could be very exciting for Bruni, who is still only 35 but has been super successful through a glittering GT racing career to date, with three Le Mans wins to his credit, as well as two GTE-Pro titles and more wins at Sebring and Spa.
“We’re delighted to welcome Gianmaria Bruni, one of the world’s top GT pilots, into our squad,” said Dr. Walliser. “He fits perfectly into our strong circle of works drivers and will join us for the second half of the season.”
This is exciting news for the Porsche driver lineup: Forza Weissach, indeed.
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.
by John Glynn | Jul 11, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Race and Rally
The flag has just dropped on the 2016 Le Mans Classic. Figures released by the organisers show that the event was the most successful to date, with more than 120,000 attending the weekend to celebrate the history of the legendary endurance race.
My first Classic Le Mans was in 2006, when little brother and I took my old 911 SC Cabriolet down to Le Mans, in convoy with other 911s including a 3.2 Carrera and 964RS. With no more than 60,000 people attending the 2006 event, it was a really terrific weekend, apart from when we were bumped out of our hotel to a less salubrious location to keep the Aston Martin Owners’ Club happy. After that, I decided to rent a house and share it with friends in future. We did that in 2008 and for my most recent Le Mans Classic in 2010, and it proved to be the perfect solution.
2010 was a boiling hot year on track: the soles of my shoes were melting in the paddock. With 96,000 people and their cars attending that weekend, traffic was a nightmare all around the city. My Orange Carrera 3.0 arrived with no fresh air blower, having burned it out in the Alps a few days earlier, and Jamie’s Renault 8 also suffered from fuel boiling all weekend. It was still great to see so many friends, but a far cry from the relaxed atmosphere of 2016.
When the weather is not too hot, the atmosphere throughout a Le Mans Classic weekend is terrific – especially if you go down with a big group of friends – but the racing can be quite hard to follow, as the long lap spreads the field out and gives little impression of the battles taking place on track. The racing is closer at some of Europe’s many other historic festivals, including the Spa 6 Hours and Zandvoort Historic Grand Prix.
All things considered, I can understand why so many people return to the Le Mans Classic every two years. It is a great start to a touring holiday in France, and family men can just about get away with it if they rent a house nearby with a pool for the wife and kids to hang out in.
For me, three years watching the racing satisfied my desire to experience spectating at Le Mans for the racing eras I am most interested in. There are lots of other historic racing weekends across Europe with plenty of Porsche content and equally open access to the paddocks, where traffic jams and overheating engines are not the order of the day, so I have been to quite a few of those in the years since my last Le Mans Classic.
Did you go to Le Mans for LMC 2016? How was the weekend? Email your thoughts to mail@ferdinandmagazine.com.
by John Glynn | Jun 19, 2016 | Race and Rally
It still seems unbelieveable and looked so unlikely for such a long time, but Porsche has won the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans. Driving the number 2 Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid, Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb were first to cross the line after a full day of racing to claim Porsche’s 18th Le Mans win.
I had just tweeted “with five minutes left, it looks like Porsche will have to wait until next year for win number 18” and was about to switch to Sky F1 for the start of the Baku Grand Prix, when a wounded number 5 Toyota – the leader – came onto the screen, slowing as it crossed the start/finish line for the penultimate lap. Crawling to a halt, the car looked like it would not be moving again, until it eventually restarted at a snail’s pace. Rumour has it that the car suffered turbo failure, but we don’t know for sure yet.
Porsche wins Le Mans
All the time this was unravelling, the Porsche 919 was getting closer and closer, having pulled a last minute stop for tyres and fuel. Jaw dropped, I deleted the tweet and sat spellbound in a combination of shock, joy and horror as the 919 started its very last lap. Soon enough, the car crossed the line and the Porsche garage went totally mental. We didn’t see what was going on in the Toyota pits but then the tweets started flying and it was obvious how upset the team was.
Worst of all, the Toyota was not classified as it had taken too long to complete its last lap. The Audi guys looked seriously uncomfortable on the third step of the podium, but that’s racing. We’ve lost enough races in the dying moments and a win is a win: the shoe could just as easily be on the other foot.
Winning Le Mans more important than winning a Championship
Winning at Le Mans – an overall win – is arguably more important and commercially beneficial than taking a championship. Toyota certainly seems to think so, as the story goes that this car was built specifically to win at Le Mans. If that is a fact, then the 919s win is even more impressive. Well done to all at Porsche Motorsport.
