Porsche prepares for their most comprehensive motorsport program next year

Porsche looked at the 2014 motorsport calendar and put together their most extensive motorsport program ever.  Along with the LMP1 project, Porsche Motorsport sends two GT works teams to compete on race tracks around the world.

Porsche AG Team Manthey will once again field two Porsche 911 RSR in the Sports Car World Endurance Championship (WEC), as well as at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Porsche North America, with CORE autosport as the race team, will fight for the new TUDOR United SportsCar Championship as it kicks off at the Rolex 24 in Daytona on January 25.

The lineup of Porsche Motorsport’s drivers has increased tremendously.  Porsche has signed on 20 drivers including four Porsche juniors and a scholarship candidate chosen from the international one-make race series. All current Porsche factory pilots have received a contract for the 2014 season.

“We’ve never had such a large driver line-up in the history of the company,” says Wolfgang Hatz, Board Member for Research and Development at Porsche AG.

Porsche AG announces their entry to the Sports Car World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2014 with the young New Zealander Brendon Hartley (24) and long-standing Porsche works driver Marc Lieb (33) from Germany as regular drivers in the LMP1 race car and the official vehicle name is “Porsche 919 hybrid.” Also signed on for the LMP1 project are drivers Timo Bernhard (DE, 32), Romain Dumas (FR, 36), Neel Jani (CH, 30) and the Australian Mark Webber (37). 

“For me a lot of it is familiar, a lot is foreign, everything is special. I’m absorbing every bit of information I can and I’m already looking forward to the next tests,” said Mark Webber after the nine-time Grand Prix winner took the wheel of the 919 hybrid several days ago in Portimão, Portugal.

To enhance Porsche’s assets in the WEC, it has acquired a 51 percent stake in Manthey Racing GmbH.  “I’m sure this will help us to prepare even better for the challenges we are facing together in the WEC and I look forward to working with Olaf Manthey, Nicolas Raeder and Martin Raeder,” says Wolfgang Hatz.

The Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup will continue to run as part of the Formula 1 weekends.  It began in 1993 and has now been extended for another three years, up to and including the 2016 season.  It has been a flagship of Porsche’s one-make race series and has been regarded as one of the major launching platforms for an international GT career.

The Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup heads into its 22nd season on May 11, 2014 in Barcelona. Nine events with a total of ten races make up the calendar. A highlight of the season will be on October 12 at the Supercup debut on the new Formula 1 circuit in the Russian Olympic city of Sochi.

The 2014 Supercup calendar:

11.05. Barcelona/Spain

25.05. Monte Carlo/Monaco

22.06. Spielberg/Austria

06.07. Silverstone/Great Britain

20.07. Hockenheim/Germany

27.07. Budapest/Hungary

24.08. Spa-Francorchamps/Belgium

07.09. Monza/Italy

12.10. Sochi/Russia (2 races)