Fritz Enzinger (65) has been a part of the Porsche Motorsport family for a decade, overseeing the brand’s return to top-flight sports car prototype action with the 919 Hybrid LMP1 effort, which began racing in 2014. He brought with him a serious level of expertise from several years at BMW Motorsport, overseeing efforts at Le Mans and in Formula one. In his time at Porsche, he played a large part in Porsche’s hat-trick of Le Mans victories from 2015 to 2017, as well as the company’s three FIA World Endurance Championship titles in that same time frame.
When Porsche’s LMP1 program ended in 2017, Enzinger was promoted to a coordination role between Porsche Motorsport and the Volkswagen Group, acting as the head of motor sport for all Volkswagen brands. In 2019 he took over the role of VP of Motorsport at Porsche when Frank-Steffen Walliser left his motor sport post to oversee the 911 and 718 lines on the product side of the company.
In Enzinger’s absence, his position will be filled by the newly appointed Thomas Laudenbach (53) who is returning to the Porsche fold after a stint with Audi Sport. Laudenbach was head of racing powertrains within Porsche Motorsport from 2005 to 2013, and led development of the massively successful 3.4-liter V8 found in the middle of a Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 machine. From there he moved over to Audi where he was head of electrics, electronics, and energy systems for the company’s eTron series of hybrid Le Mans prototypes and later its Formula E program. So it would seem that Laudenbach is uniquely placed to perfectly succeed Enzinger.
Michael Steiner, the board member at Porsche responsible for motor sport, said: “We cannot thank Fritz Enzinger enough for his enormously successful work over the past 10 years: he shaped an era at Porsche Motorsport that led us to incredible triumphs and title wins. Motorsport has played a very special role in Porsche’s corporate strategy: we’ve always used the racing platform as a test laboratory for the latest technologies.”