Departing Peugeot World Endurance Championship driver Nico Muller has ambitions to proceed his sportscar driving profession after joining Porsche for Formula E with Andretti.
Muller has stressed that he’ll give attention to driving with the Andretti Porsche team within the FE class in 2025, but has expressed a desire to race within the WEC or pursue other opportunities to race sports cars for the German manufacturer, which has signed him as a works driver for next 12 months.
“I would like to continue doing both,” Muller said finally week’s WEC race in Austin, while driving for Peugeot.
“We will focus on FE: it’s the first program I’ve been involved in. But if there’s a chance to stay here and do WEC in Hypercar, that would be a dream scenario. The door is open to do something else besides FE.”
Muller, who joined the Peugeot team within the WEC for the ultimate race of the 2022 season, stressed that talks a couple of wider programme with Porsche haven’t yet taken place.
“We haven’t talked yet about what our options are and how we intend to proceed,” he explained.
Nico Muller, ABT CUPRA Formula E Team
Photo: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Porsche hinted Muller could pursue a wider role outside of FE when it announced his signing and programme with Andretti in July.
“We will announce at a later date whether and in which other series Nico will also drive for Porsche,” said Porsche Motorsport Director Thomas Laudenbach.
A full WEC programme with the factory Penske Porsche Motorsport team seems unlikely.
For the 2023 season, Porsche has asked Antonio Felix da Costa to leave his multi-year sports automobile program with Jota and give attention to attacking FE with a works team.
There stays yet another scheduling conflict between the FE and WEC calendars: the Berlin round of the FE clashes with Interlagos within the WEC.
If Porsche decides to field a 3rd factory 963 LMDh model within the French enduro race for a 3rd consecutive time, Muller could contest a one-off 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
“If you are asked to come back to Le Mans, you will say yes,” he said. “It is at the top of the list.”
#93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Jean-Eric Vergne, Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller
Photo: Shameem Fahath
Another option could possibly be racing with the private Proton team within the Hypercar class.
Muller also revealed his desire to expand his experience within the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America, where he has previously only competed within the LMP2 class, on the 2022 24 Hours of Daytona with the High Class Racing team.
“IMSA has a lot of classic tracks and I’d like to get to know them a little better,” he said.
“There are similarities to FE in that there’s much less discussion about having the 4 wheels on the opposite side of the white lines [because there is generally less run-off than at the Formula 1 tracks visited by WEC].”
According to the motive force, who enjoyed success on the wheel of GT3 machines during his nine-year partnership with Audi, “the Porsche 911 GT3-R racing model is definitely also a solution under consideration.”
His GT racing achievements with Audi include victory within the 2015 Nürburgring 24 Hours, in addition to two podium finishes and two top six finishes within the Spa 24 Hours.
The Nurburgring race clashes with next 12 months's Jakarta FE, but Muller might be eligible to race at Spa – an important round of the GT World Challenge Europe.
Muller also revealed that his dream list includes racing within the Supercars touring automobile series in Australia.
“I would love to go to Australia and test drive one of these supercars,” he said.
“I hope I can do something cool outside of FE next year.”
