Porsche confirms unchanged WEC lineup and two cars for Le Mans

Porsche Motorsport confirms unchanged driver line-up for 2016 World Endurance Championship. All six works drivers who have been competing regularly in the Porsche 919 Hybrids are going to race again in the next season. It will be the third consecutive year that Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber will share one of the LMP1 prototypes, with Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb racing with the sister car.

Same as Audi Sport, Porsche Team will enter 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans with only two cars. The reason is cost efficiency of the VW Group. It means 2015 winners Earl Bamber, Nick Tandy and Nico Hulkenberg will not have a chance to repeat their triumph.

Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1: “The advice of ‘never change a winning team’ is spot on. Both our driver trios didn’t only perform brilliantly on track, but have also been with us since the beginning of the programme and have significantly contributed to the Porsche 919 Hybrid’s development. We are very proud of these six top drivers, and very pleased all of them are on board for the 2016 world championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours.”

Team Principal Andreas Seidl: “In continual dialogue with the drivers, we have been constantly improving as a team. We trust and feel comfortable with each other. Without the extraordinary performances by their drivers, Porsche couldn’t have achieved this sensational level of success in 2015. The icing on the cake in terms of teamwork was the fact that in the season’s finale the trio of Bernhard, Hartley and Webber were only able to become world champions because Dumas, Jani and Lieb fought their way to win the race. This also proves how important it is in this championship to have two equally strong driver crews. We will build on that strength and continuity.”