Porsche will end its factory involvement in the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class at the end of the current 2025 season.
The German manufacturer, which claimed last year’s WEC drivers’ title with Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer, announced the move on Tuesday at the same time as reaffirming its commitment to carry on racing with the 963 LMDh in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America.
The continued participation in IMSA’s GTP division with the Porsche Penske Motorsport operation will be one of two factory Porsche programmes from 2026, along with its engagement in Formula E with an in-house team.
Michael Steiner, the board member responsible for research and development whose remit includes motorsport, said: “We very much regret that, due to the current circumstances, we will not be continuing our involvement in the WEC after this season.”
The statement from Porsche stressed that the continued participation in IMSA, where it is on course to retain its GTP titles, “is underlining the importance of the North American market and endurance racing for the brand”.
There was further explanation of the term “current circumstances”, but Porsche’s decision to slim down the PPM programme that has operated as a twin-pronged attack on WEC and IMSA since 2023 comes against a backdrop of financial problems for the brand.
#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, Matt Campbell
Photo by: FIAWEC – DPPI
Porsche sales are down in the face of the introduction of import tariffs in the US and falling demand in China.
In July, company CEO Oliver Blume announced a plan to reduce the workforce by 10% before 2029 as he outlined a future in which Porsche sales peak at 250,000 rather than the 300,000-plus of 2024.
But Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach said at the Austin WEC round in September that decisions regarding the future of the LMDh programme would not be based only on financial considerations.
He admitted to dissatisfaction with the WEC, stating: “I think there are things we can improve in the series.”
Laudenbach made a veiled reference to the Balance of Performance when he said “we have seen a lot of results that are questionable”.
He highlighted the near-perfect race enjoyed by the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry shared by Estre, Vanthoor and Matt Campbell on the way to second place at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.
Thomas Laudenbach, Head of Porsche Motorsport
Photo by: Andreas Beil
“Second place is not bad if you look at the competition out there, but on the other side it did hurt because the #6 car was close to what I would call a perfect race,” he explained. “Frankly speaking the #6 should have won the race. Dot.”
Continued participation in FE, which is moving to its Gen4 era for the 2026/27 campaign, will allow Porsche to “gain valuable insights for its electric production sports cars”, stated Porsche.
“In this competitive environment, we will continue to drive forward the development of high-performance vehicles,” said Steiner.
Porsche reaffirmed its commitment to customer racing, which it described “as an important pillar” of its motorsport strategy.
A customer Porsche 963 is fielded in this year’s WEC by the German Proton Competition squad, while it is also represented in the championship’s LMGT3 class by the Manthey Racing team with the latest version of the 911 GT3-R.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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