Porsche Penske Motorsport Presents 963: Bahrain beckons
Porsche unveils 963 Hypercar and driver line-up at Goodwood Festival of Speed and with debut presence at the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship season-culminating 8 hours of Bahrain.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed was the venue for the presentation of Porsche Penske Motorsport, the new Porsche 963 in its racing colours, its partners, driving personnel and plans.
The LMDh Hypercar will head a global quest for Porsche Penske Motorsport with the new 963 as it launches a two-prong approach for overall victories in the world’s greatest endurance races. From 2023, two of the hybrid LMDh-spec prototypes will be deployed in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The drivers selected for the races in the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship include the experienced works drivers Kévin Estre (France), Michael Christensen (Denmark), André Lotterer (Germany), Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium), Matt Campbell (Australia), Mathieu Jaminet (France) as well as the accomplished sportscar drivers Dane Cameron (USA) and Felipe Nasr (Brazil).
The Hypercar unveiled at Goodwood flies the typical Porsche motor racing colours: white, red and black. In the cockpits of the 500 kW (680 PS) racers, experienced and championship winning prototype drivers are paired with seasoned specialists from Porsche’s works driver squad.
“Our new Porsche 963 should continue the legacy of legendary models such as the 917, 935, 956, 962 and the 919 Hybrid. I’m positive that we’ll be well-positioned when it comes to technology and we’ve also created the relevant team structures to set us up for wins in the thrilling competition between many manufacturers and different concepts,” said Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Motorsport.
The official race debut of the Porsche 963 is planned to take place in January 2023 at the 24 Hours of Daytona in the USA. In the meantime, the FIA World Endurance Championship will welcome the car as testing as part of the upcoming world championship races this year meaning that Porsche Penske Motorsport is aiming for a non-competitive dress rehearsal at the final round of the season in Bahrain this November.
“Over the past few months, our people at Porsche Motorsport and Team Penske have grown into an efficient and committed squad – the Porsche Penske Motorsport Team,” said Urs Kuratle, Director Factory Motorsport LMDh.
“We’ll have powerful driver crews in the four factory cars. The collaboration with our long-standing tyre partner Michelin and the chassis manufacturer Multimatic works flawlessly. The Porsche 963 should be homologated this autumn. Until then, we want to make further progress with test drives and gain additional insights. We can hardly wait for our first outing.”
