The number one of the sports department of the German company details the objectives of the new Porsche 963 LmdH, unveiled to the public at the Goodwood Festival: “At Daytona 2023 we will be ready with reliable cars”
Giulio Masperi
July 22nd
– chichester (england)
It will make its debut in the race starting from the 24 Hours of Daytona 2023, the first round of the American Imsa championship, then in the World Endurance WEC, but it could appear on the grid as early as the end of the 2022 season, at the 8 Hours of Bahrain on 12 November, the final round of the Wec, where a presence to make the general “tests” is not to be excluded, without scoring for the purposes of the classification. The Porsche 963 prototype, a rear-wheel drive Le Mans Daytona Hybrid, will have the mission “to achieve twenty overall successes for our home in Le Mans,” he said. Thomas Laudenbach, motorsport manager of the Zuffenhausen company. “Why did we choose the LmdH platform? Because it gives us the opportunity to compete for absolute victory in the most famous endurance races, Daytona, Le Mans, Sebring, both in a market as essential for us as America, and in the World Championship. All with a view to containing costs, essential for today’s challenges “.
porsche: the objectives
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The veil has been removed from the Porsche 963 prototype, which is already in an advanced stage of track tests (the car will continue testing between Sebring, Daytona, Monza), women and men who work in the sports department of the German house have already started the countdown for the great comeback in the “premier” class of the WEC. A universe in which Porsche occupies a prominent place, considering the history full of successes: 19 absolute ones. The car has already archived almost 8,000 kilometers of testing. “It’s not bad, but we are halfway through the development – added Laudenbach -. This is a machine born from a blank sheet, from a drawing, there is still a lot of work to do. We want to arrive at Daytona with the cars (Porsche will field at least six LmdHs between the Imsa and Wec championships, including the cars of the customer teams, Ed) reliable. So far we have had some problems in the hybrid sector, I do not deny it, but it is normal: when you develop a new project you cannot think that everything goes smoothly. The important thing is to have the right partners by your side and solve the problems, and we have them ”.
le mans and daytona: the new era
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If for the manufacturers, the teams, the drivers, thanks to the new Hypercars and the hybrid LmdH competing for the overall victory, endurance races are returning to an extraordinary level of interest, as it happened a few decades ago, also for the public this season. 2023 of the WEC promises to be full of interest. The reason? The grids, including that of Le Mans, will be filled with futuristic prototypes from different brands: Toyota, Glickenhaus, Alpine, Peugeot, Porsche, Ferrari, Cadillac, awaiting Lamborghini’s debut in 2024. “What is our goal with all these competitors? We are Porsche, for us the goal must always be to compete to win – replies Thomas Laudenbach -. We know, however, that the competition will be high, and we certainly do not underestimate the opponents. This new era we are entering is fantastic, even thinking about the spectacle offered to the public, but predicting who will have the most chance of winning the centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023 or the WEC championship is impossible ”.
July 22, 2022 – 13:38
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