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Wehrlein to make Le Mans debut in third factory Porsche
Pascal Wehrlein will make his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut this year, driving a third factory Penske Porsche 963.
The reigning Formula E world champion’s addition to Porsche’s Le Mans lineup follows his first outing in the 963 at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, where he raced a customer entry for JDC-Miller and finished sixth.
“Competing for Porsche Penske Motorsport at Le Mans is a dream come true for me,” said Wehrlein. “I’m looking forward to this major challenge because, unlike in Formula E, I have to share everything in the Porsche 963 that I would normally tailor specifically to myself: seating position, setup, strategy, and more.
“Of course, I want to add major titles in other series to my Formula E World Championship victory, but my primary goal is to do a strong job for the team and learn as much as possible. Porsche has such an iconic motorsport heritage; I am extremely grateful for this opportunity.”
Wehrlein made his first outing in a Porsche 963 at the Rolex 24 earlier this year. Brandon Badraoui/Lumen
Wehrlein will race alongside Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy, who are competing in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car championship this season, and have won the opening two rounds of the season at Daytona and Sebring. Their IMSA teammate Laurens Vanthoor is also competing in the World Endurance championship full-time this season and will compete alongside his regular WEC teammates Matt Campbell and Kevin Estre.
“The Porsche driver roster is absolutely top-tier and incredibly deep. It only makes sense to leverage our strong personnel from the Formula E factory team for the third Porsche Penske Motorsport entry at Le Mans,” said vice president of Porsche Motorsport Thomas Laudenbach. "Pascal Wehrlein has fully convinced us with his performance in testing and his participation in the 24 Hours of Daytona. As the reigning Formula E World Champion, he has earned his Le Mans debut at the wheel of a Porsche 963.”
Wehrlein isn't the only Porsche Formula e driver who will race at Le Mans this year, with his teammate Antonio Felix da Costa racing an ORECA-Gibson 07 in the LMP2 class for an as-yet-unnamed team.
“I am very happy to be back at Le Mans after a one year absence,” said da Costa. “In my last LMP2 appearance, I won the class. That’s my goal again this year. I can’t wait to attack alongside my teammates in June."
Dominik Wilde
Dominik often jokes that he was born in the wrong country – a lover of NASCAR and IndyCar, he covered both in a past life as a junior at Autosport in the UK, but he’s spent most of his career to date covering the sliding and flying antics of the U.S.’ interpretation of rallycross. Rather fitting for a man that says he likes “seeing cars do what they’re not supposed to do”, previously worked for a car stunt show, and once even rolled a rally car with Travis Pastrana. He was also comprehensively beaten in a kart race by Sebastien Loeb once, but who hasn’t been?
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