Porsche makes changes to GTLM line-up

Porsche’s annual Night of Champions event held in Stuttgart, Germany, has become a celebration of all the brand achieved throughout the world of racing, and the moment where its cadre of factory drivers are confirmed in the brand’s various programs for the following season.

In IMSA, the most notable change came with the Porsche GT Team as the six-year partnership between Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy has come to an end.

France’s Pilet, the 2015 GTLM drivers’ champion, has been reassigned to Porsche’s Intercontinental GT Challenge effort, and in his place, countryman Frédéric Makowiecki will spend 2020 with Tandy in the new, second-generation No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR. Australia’s Matt Campbell will complement the Franco-British duo at IMSA’s Michelin Endurance Cup rounds, where he fills the part-time GTLM seat Makowiecki occupied in 2019.

The sister No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR will race with its driver line-up unchanged as the championship-winning combination of New Zealand’s Earl Bamber and Belgium’s Laurens Vanthoor will welcome France’s Mathieu Jaminet for the long races.

Porsche Motorsport VP Fritz Enzinger also confirmed that two of the brand’s most successful drivers, Jorg Bergmeister and Timo Bernhard, have reached the end of the road as factory pilots. Both Germans will remain under contract, however, as brand ambassadors.

New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley, who was recently confirmed as a member of Toyota’s upcoming FIA WEC Hypercar program, was released from his contract, and in the opposite direction, two of Porsche’s Junior drivers, Germany’s Dennis Olsen and Italy’s Matteo Cairoli have been elevated as works drivers who will be placed with customer outfits.