Of course, Porsche had never really shut down its motorsport activities as far as endurance races are concerned. Apart from the numerous 911s, the RS Spyder that was run by the Porsche-backed Penske team in the US from 2006-2008 and to 2010 with several privateer teams, it has enjoyed success in the LMP2 category.
“With the RS Spyder we proved that our motorsport engineers in Weissach are at the forefront,” says Wolfgang Hatz, Board Member for Research and Development at Porsche AG. “We were the first to run a high-revving race engine with direct fuel injection, setting new standards in performance and efficiency. Recently, with the 911 GT3 R Hybrid, we adopted a completely new drive technology for racing purposes and achieved a considerable reduction in consumption.”
According to Porsches’s head of Motorsport, Hartmut Kristen, the company will begin to evaluate its options for the brand-new LMP1 racer. As he points out, “these obviously depend on the details of the 2014 regulations, which are interesting because in principle the integration of our hybrid technology is one option”.
Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood claimed the first overall victory for Porsche in 1970 with the legendary 917 short-tail. The 16th and, until now, last overall win was secured by Laurent Aiello, Stéphane Ortelli and Allan McNish in 1998 with the 911 GT1. In 2008 and 2009, the Porsche RS Spyder sports prototype won the title in the LMP2 category.
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