Can new 963 LMDh continue Porsche's incredible Le Mans legacy?

Sports Car News

Porsche has won more Le Mans than any other marque – drivers and team explain their ambitions to make more history with the 963 LMDh car

Porsche 963 LMDh car at Goodwood

Porsche is looking to recapture former glories with the 963 LMDh car

Porsche

Porsche 963. See what they’ve done there? Just one up from Porsche 962, you see, to make it crystal that the company’s new LMDh-spec Le Mans contender is a spiritual successor to the wonder of Group C from the 1980s. When you have one of the greatest motor sport heritages of any car maker in the automotive world, you make every drop count.

The link across the generations is slight but still significant – in a way. The new 963, revealed in full livery to the public on Friday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, has nothing in common with its illustrious forbear in physical terms. The racer relies on high-profile out-sourcing for a start: Multimatic for its LMP2-based chassis, and a combination of Williams Advanced Engineering, Bosch and Xtrac for its spec hybrid drivetrain. The main Porsche bit is the important ingredient at its heart: the 4.6-litre V8 biturbo that provides the majority of its strictly limited thrust. So it’s not even powered by a flat six.

So where is the link exactly? The answer is in the intention and strategy for the new car and era beginning in 2023, which for Porsche has customer racing at its core.

Porsche 963 LMDh car at Goodwood

963 joins a handsome WEC grid which includes Glickenhaus 007 and Peugeot 9X8

Porsche

Yes, Porsche (in alliance with Penske) will run two works cars in the World Endurance Championship and also a pair in IMSA. But from the beginning, it has been stated that versions of what we now know as the 963 will be made available to privateers, which is precisely what made the 956/962 ubiquitous in the 1980s. For the first year at least, Porsche has to limit the numbers of cars it supplies to customer teams – but it’s definitely happening. We know that because a day after the model launch at Goodwood, Jota – fresh from its dominant win at Le Mans earlier this month – confirmed it is one of the customers that will run a Porsche 963 in the 2023 WEC, with backing from car rental giant Hertz (which should make for a cracking alternative livery, just as Joest, Kremer, Richard Lloyd and the rest offered up in the good old days).

More should follow, but not too many more, at least to start with, according to Porsche’s vice-president of motor sport Thomas Laundenbach. At Goodwood, he stated there will be a “maximum of two [customer cars] in the WEC and two in IMSA in the first year. This is not about selling as many cars as we can, this is about making sure we can give the right support to the cars we sell to customer teams, so they can be run properly and be successful. The interest is huge but whether we see four cars in the first year, we will see.”

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The 963, like the new BMW, Cadillac and teased Acura image released so far, is a handsome thing, and along with the LMH entries we already know from Toyota and Glickenhaus, plus the striking Peugeot 9X8, it all bodes well for an attractive grid of racing cars that actually don’t all look alike. That’s not very 21st Century, is it?

“It’s down to the LMDh rules,” says Laudenbach. “You have to hit certain aero figures, a certain ballpark where everybody is the same, which means you don’t put in tons of money in optimising the shape and it gives you freedom for a car with a face that has the Porsche look. This is the reason why we have such nice looking cars out there.”

The only cloud over the new era is also why it exists at all. Balance of Performance is controversial, as we have seen in GTE, but without it we wouldn’t be witnessing the flood of manufacturers heading back into sports car racing right now. But are we comfortable that BoP might well become the deciding factor over who wins Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans outright? For once, pity the poor regulators who will have to manage the formula – and the lobbying they will face from aggrieved sports bosses facing heat from their boards.

Laudenbach understands the doubts only too well. “I’m happy to look at it as a challenge and as a chance,” he says. “As you say, if we didn’t accept BoP I don’t think we would ever have what we are facing now. If we want to have this convergence [of regulations between LMH and LMDh] and cost control we have to accept BoP. Now we have to get it right. But we have a certain trust in the sanctioning bodies, otherwise we wouldn’t participate.”

Dane Cameron, Porsche 963 LMDh driver at Goodwood

Dane Cameron and Andre Lotterer are bringing the experience to Porsche, with the rest of its driving crew coming from its youthful GT set up

Porsche

What he says next verges on altruistic idealism: “To me, every competitor has a responsibility to give his contribution. We have it in our hands together to get it right. Yes it is not easy. But I always want to look at it in a positive way, as a chance for a new era of endurance racing. All together we have to get it right so that everybody who comes to race can say ‘I had a fair chance to win’. Now we have got to make a perfect job.”

Does he really expect major car makers to play nicely? Won’t the new era quickly explode if only a couple soak up all the victories and titles?

“Everybody has got to follow some rules and treat each other fairly,” says Laudenbach. “What do I mean by that? If everybody just tries to get an advantage over the others through BoP it doesn’t work.”

The difference over who wins and loses should be natural: “drivers, strategies, pitstops, preparation… the one that builds a car with a wide range [of performance] with no peak, that works in the wet and in the dry, on worn tyres and fresh, on full tanks and on low fuel: whoever solves this challenge best should win, and that is something we have to accept.”

A fine ideal. How it works in practice, in a sport driven by selfish agendas, is another matter.

At Goodwood, Porsche also confirmed its roster of drivers for the new campaign, without spelling out who would race in which championship. The list has been drawn from the brand’s GT performers, including junior Academy graduates Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet. Recent IMSA recruits Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr had already been confirmed, and there was little surprise that André Lotterer – the best-known and most senior driver named – also made the cut.

Lotterer told Motor Sport in a long interview for the magazine last summer that his main ambition still centres around Le Mans, a race he has won three times with Audi. “That is something I’d love to achieve – to win Le Mans in a Porsche,” he said.

Now at 40, he might have his chance, at the likely expense.

LOTTERER Andre (ger) Formula E team Techeetah, portrait during the 2018 Formula E championship, at New-York city, United States, from july 13 to 15 - Photo Gregory Lenormand / DPPI

Andre Lotterer is aiming for a fourth Le Mans win, but a first with Porsche

Gregory Lenormand / DPPI

What is notably lacking from the Porsche line-up, beyond Lotterer, is a superstar signing. Last time with the LMP1 hybrid programme, the car maker signed Mark Webber direct from Formula 1. Toyota had Fernando Alonso, who won Le Mans twice – and took the lion’s share of the limelight (and arguably the credit) for their success together.

“We wanted to have a good mixture of our own drivers,” explained Laudenbach. “In Mathieu and Matt, we have drivers from our own programmes who have climbed the ladder. Then we have guys who are already part of the factory programme, within the Porsche family, like Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen and André Lotterer. Then of course we have guys who are new to the family, like Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr. Our goal was to create a very strong driver line-up and a good mixture. We are convinced this is a group that can grow together, which is also a factor for success. Nothing against Formula 1 drivers, but we decided to go down this route because we believe this will give us the success we want.”

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Lotterer was an obvious choice, especially as he asked directly for the job. “He’s a fast driver, he’s proven that more than once, he also has a lot of experience in prototype racing – and he wanted to do it,” says the chief. “It wasn’t a difficult decision. He’s a great guy. What can I say, I’d love to win Le Mans with him.”

So can Porsche do it first time out? That’s what will be required of all the manufacturers pitching up for the 100th edition next June – other than Toyota and Glickenhaus, of course, who should be already fully match fit with their contenders.

“We’re not targeting anything less,” points out Lotterer. “We’re doing everything in our power to be up there and we’re compensating for the break we have had [since pulling the plug on LMP1 at the end of 2017] to put everything together and be ready on the day.”

“There is always a possibility,” says Laudenbach. “If you ask how big is the chance, I can’t say. We don’t know how strong the competition will be, there is no direct competition so far on the track. But there is always a chance.

Porsche 983 LMDh car testing at barcelona

Significant testing has gone into New Porsche 963

Porsche

“We are definitely not participating just to be on the grid. Don’t get me wrong: we don’t underestimate the competition and we have great respect for all the other brands. But our goal is to be competitive and be up front, no question. If it is likely, I hope we will soon see. It is not something that worries me. We will try to do our best and put the best possible car on the track, then see where we are.”

‘Porsche wins Le Mans’: that’s all that will matter come June next year, as Steve McQueen’s Michael Delaney discovered all those years ago… The goal, as the great race’s most successful manufacturer bids for a record-extending 20th overall win, is always the same. Big-name F1 star or newbie? Works car or customer? It doesn’t really matter.

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