Customer cars key if manufacturers end up deserting Hypercar – Porsche

The WEC is booming following an overhaul in regulations, with no fewer than nineteen Hypercar entered in 2024, representing nine different manufacturers. Never have so many OEMs been involved in WEC's top class since the inception of the series. 

While this development is generally heralded as the advent of a golden era, Laudenbach warns that there's no guarantee those constructors will maintain their commitment for the long haul. 

At the same time, privateer entrants Glickenhaus and Vanwall have dropped off the grid this year, with the latter's entry turned down by the organisers.

Laudenbach fears that if big manufacturers were to leave there might be too few privateers to save the day, as the likes of Alpine, Glickenhaus and Rebellion did when Toyota was the only OEM still involved in WEC's top class following Audi and Porsche's defection from the series in the late 2010s. 

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Porsche now supplies two 963s to Jota and another one to Proton Competition, but no other constructor has come up with a proper customer car programme, "which is a shame" according to Laudenbach. Ferrari's third 499P, with no official involvement from the Prancing Horse, is still run by the same AF Corse squad. 

"I think it's a bit sad that none of the others did customer cars," he added.

"If you look at the line-ups, probably you can argue we don't need customer cars. We've got enough factories.

"I'm long enough in the business. For me, it's hard to imagine that for over whatever, ten years, we will have that many manufacturers in the championship.

"I don't know if somebody remembers a decade of that many [manufacturers]. I can't. 

Photo by: Andreas Beil

Thomas Laudenbach, Head of Porsche Motorsport

"And then the day will come where we are all...because we love the sport, because we love endurance racing and we all want to, let's say, make sure that endurance racing lives for quite a long time. Then everybody will be happy that we have customer cars.

"So therefore, I think we should treat them well in the good times. And we are the only ones who do that." 

Yet, Laudenbach admits having customer teams hasn't made Porsche's life easier in the Hypercar class. 

"We have to provide service, which is an effort, not in the aspect that your own customers like to beat you. And at the same time, we do everything to provide them with a good car," he said. 

That includes supplying them with the same upgrades as the factory squad.

"I think we've got a very good philosophy because I think we really treat our customers, let's say, in a fair way," Laudenbach added.

"If there are changes towards performance, one thing to say, the customers will always have the same spec as we do, 100 percent. They have to, by regulations. And it's also a clear philosophy, you know, so that matches quite well." 

Porsche's first customer car – Jota's #38 machine driven by Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens and Yifei Ye – claimed a best result of fourth in 2023 at the Bahrain season finale.

Joining in the last three rounds of the campaign, Proton's #99 entry impressed at Fuji until a freak seatbelt problem, and took a podium in the final IMSA round at Petit Le Mans.