First announced a year ago, Porsche will begin testing their latest endurance racer from next year in preparation for overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans the following year.
Beginning in 2023, the LMDh racer will be entered by Porsche Penske Motorsport in both the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the North American IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. For the first time in some 30 years, it will then be possible to compete for overall victories in the endurance classics at Le Mans, Sebring and Daytona with cars of identical construction.
Porsche Penske Motorsport has also partnered with Multimatic for the development of the chassis. The Canadian motorsports specialist won the LMGTE Pro category of the 2016 Le Mans with their Ford GT. During its previous campaign with the hybrid 919, Porsche took the win in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and the most successful manufacturer at Le Mans, with 19 overall victories with seven in a row from 1981 to 1987.
So far, the new LMDh technical regulations and convergence with America’s IMSA has proven to be quite a success with big-name automakers, with Audi, BMW, Acura and Cadillac all preparing for the start of the 2023 season.
The technical requirements have made the LMDh similar to an ‘off-the-shelf’ spec-series, rather than the Hypercar/prototype category, in which, the exterior bodywork package, the batteries and the motor-generator unit are supplied by FIA-nominated specialists such as Xtrac and Williams Advance Engineering.
Weighting over just 1,000 kg, the LMDh vehicles are only allowed to have up to 680 hp of combined system output, which the internal combustion engine is generating the bulk of the power.
The Le Mans Hypercar category meanwhile sees reigning champion Toyota joint by the return of Peugeot and Ferrari. There has been no update on the participation of Aston Martin, which the company claimed to have withheld their top-tier Le Mans participation due to the abovementioned technical convergence.
Porsche will also continue with their participation with Formula E as well as the GTE Pro category of the WEC to wrestle the GT manufacturer’s championship title off Ferrari for the 2022 season.
GALLERY
