Porsche has revealed that there will likely be changes to the 963 LMDh driver lineups within the World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship next season.
The planned changes to the two-car programmes of the Porsche Penske Motorsport teams in each series is not going to be radical and are expected to be announced before the top of the present WEC campaign, in Bahrain in early November, as reported.
PPM managing director Jonathan Diuguid told Motorsport.com that the driving force line-ups for the 2025 season will likely be “not significantly different” to this 12 months’s.
“All options are on the table and we are getting closer. Hopefully we will be able to hear some news before the end of the WEC season,” he said.
Porsche LMDh program manager Urs Kuratle echoed Diuguid’s position.
“There will be changes and we are close to making an announcement before the end of the season,” he said.
“The lineups won't be the same as this year, but we're not 100% ready yet, we're only 99%.”
Asked if it could be possible to perform a driver reshuffle between the 4 963 LMDh PPMs, as was the case in 2024, Kuratle replied: “That’s a part of the missing 1%.
It looks like there could also be at the least one recent player within the PPM lineup.
Andlauer may very well be within the running for a move to Porsche Penske in 2025
Photo: JEP / Motorsport Images
Julien Andlauer, who has signed with Porsche, is more likely to fight for a seat in one among the team’s cars within the WEC Hypercar or IMSA GTP class next 12 months, having impressed on the wheel of the Proton Competition 963 within the WEC this 12 months.
One possibility is that he will likely be placed on the IMSA roster instead of Dane Cameron.
Porsche can also be known to have considered reducing the WEC line-up to field two drivers in each automobile within the six-hour races, much like what Cadillac did this 12 months.
If Porsche were to take such a step, PPM would invite drivers from its IMSA program to the longer WEC races, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
With just eight drivers on this scenario, PPM could have one less driver should Porsche resolve to field three factory cars at Le Mans again.
Porsche needs to be free to decide on this route, as a proposed rule change requiring each Hypercar to seat three people has apparently been rejected by the manufacturers.
In September, through the WEC race in Austin, Diuguid revealed that Porsche was against any rule changes.
The only change to the PPM roster this season was the swap of Cameron and Matt Campbell between championships.
Cameron moved from WEC to IMSA, where he was partnered by Felipe Nasr, while Campbell modified direction and joined Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen.
Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet proceed their partnership in IMSA, while Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor remain together within the WEC and at the moment are well on track to win the Hypercar Drivers’ Championship.
