PORSCHE TO QUIT WEC FOR FORMULA E
Porsche announce withdraw from WEC – Photo: Supplied
PORSCHE has delivered a hammer blow to the LMP1 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) by announcing it will leave the series at the end of the 2017 season.
The German marque has confirmed that it will mount a factory assault on the Formula E Championship in 2019.
Next year the company’s will focus its motorsport strategy on the 911 RSR in the GT class of the WEC, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as the American IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and other long-distance classics.
This realignment of motorsport is derived from the direction set out for the company in Porsche Strategy 2025, which will see Porsche develop a combination of pure GT vehicles and fully electric sports cars, such as the first fully battery-powered Mission E road car.
“Entering Formula E and achieving success in this category are the logical outcomes of our Mission E”, said Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Research and Development at Porsche AG.
“The growing freedom for in-house technology developments makes Formula E attractive to us.”
“Porsche is working with alternative, innovative drive concepts. For us, Formula E is the ultimate competitive environment for driving forward the development of high-performance vehicles in areas such as environmental friendliness, efficiency and sustainability”. Porsche has already taken the first steps towards developing its own Formula E racing car this year.”
Porsche has taken three victories in a row at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and World Championship titles.
The news comes less than a week following an announcement from Mercedes-Benz that it too will mount a Formula E program, at the expense of ending its long-term involvement in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM).
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