Update: Porsche Factory Drivers for 2014
This past Saturday was the annual “Night of Champions” celebration marking the end of another Porsche racing season. Similar to last year, the event took place at the Casino at Porsche’s R&D complex in Weissach.
While the event is centered squarely on celebrating Porsche’s successful racing season by honoring the drivers, crews and cars (the 911 GT3 R celebrated 41 wins from 131 starts in a range of GT3 racing series worldwide), a few key announcements came out of the evening’s event and subsequent press release.
Porsche LMP1 Sports Prototype to be Run by Weissach-Based Works Team
On the heals of announcing two 911s to be run at Le Mans in 2013, Porsche’s Wolfgang Hatz confirmed in his speech at the Night of Champions dinner that, “the first rollout of our new LMP1 car is planned for mid-2013,” and that “the car will be run by our own works team based here at Weissach.”
Following a re-structuring, the LMP1 project is being managed by a new department headed by Fritz Enzinger (above), former head of BMW’s Formula I program.
All 9 Porsche Factory Drivers to Return
With the changing landscape in the ALMS and Grand-AM and the changes within Flying Lizard Motorsport it wasn’t clear what Porsche would do with their factory team drivers. Fortunately, Porsche is relying on continuity and all 9 drivers have valid contracts for 2013. Six drivers, including Joerg Bergmeister, Marco Holzer, Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz, Patrick Long and Patrick Pilet all start the new season at the 24 Hours of Daytona on January 26th. The remaining drivers, Wolf Henzler, Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard will have other assignments.
Other Porsche Blog Posts You Will Enjoy
Porsche to Field Two 911 RSR at Le Mans in 2013
Pricing, Pictures and Video of the 2013 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup