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Frederic Makowiecki leaves Aston Martin and Honda for Porsche

Sportscar star Frederic Makowiecki has been recruited by Porsche for its GT squad in 2014

The Frenchman has parted company with both Aston Martin and Honda, with which he respectively raced in the World Endurance Championship and Super GT in Japan in 2013, to become one of Porsche's nine-man squad of full-factory GT drivers.

The 33-year-old was announced at last night's Night of Champions event at Porsche Weissach research and development centre, although his race programme has yet to be revealed.

Porsche Motorsport boss Hartmut Kristen described Makowiecki as "one of the fastest and most experienced GT pilots".

"Fred was Porsche Carrera Cup champion in France in 2010 and we had certainly not forgotten about him," Kristen said.

"He has been one of the drivers in my mind for some time and not just because he was going great with Aston Martin in 2013."

Makowiecki said: "It is great to work for any manufacturer, but Porsche is special for me because it is where I started my sportscar career [driving in the French GT Championship and then the Carrera Cup].

"The opportunity to come here came very late, but it is a fantastic opportunity."

Makowiecki's relationship with Aston Martin, which had an option on him for 2014, is known to have cooled over the course of the season, though the driver would only say that he and the team "failed to find a reference".

He also explained that he had agreed not to continue with Honda because to take the next step would have required him relocating to Japan, something which was not possible for family reasons.

Makowiecki is one of two additions to Porsche's GT roster after Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb were chosen to drive the German marque's new LMP1 World Endurance Championship contender next year.

Dane Michael Christensen was promoted from Porsche's junior programme to full works status in November.

Porsche has yet to reveal how it will divide its drivers between its factory campaigns with Manthey Racing and CORE Autosport in the World Endurance Championship and the United SportsCar Championship in the US respectively.

The only one of the nine drivers whose programme has been confirmed is Wolf Henzler, who will remain with the Derrick Walker-run Team Falken Tire squad in USC.

The other Porsche factory GT drivers are Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Long, Marco Holzer, Patrick Pilet, Richard Lietz and Nick Tandy.

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