From Petit disappointment to Daytona joy: Andlauer's redemption arc is complete, but there's more to come

On the morning of October 11th 2025, Porsche Penske Motorsport entered a sold-out Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta aiming for its second consecutive IMSA GTP class championship sweep.

But one of the men entrusted to help secure the championship that day couldn’t make it. Frenchman Julien Andlauer (above center), a member of Porsche Penske’s FIA World Endurance Championship team, was due to make his first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship start for the factory outfit, where he’d be racing alongside the would-be champion pairing of Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet.

That morning, Andlauer woke up with severe back pain and had to take the first flight back home for further examinations.

“I’ve never felt so bad in my entire life,” Andlauer recalls of that day. “Physically, I had so much pain everywhere – it was a disaster, I could barely do anything. But it’s especially that I felt like I left the team behind, and I felt really sad because I was supposed to help Matthieu and Matt throughout the race.

“Even after the race, I was home for two or three weeks – I couldn’t do anything. I just had to rest and recover, and do some mobility. It was a really bad time.”

Campbell and Jaminet would win the title in the end, Laurens Vanthoor stepped up to take Andlauer’s place, but for Andlauer, that missed opportunity at Petit Le Mans was even more disappointing to him than to know that due to Porsche Penske’s withdrawal from the WEC, he won’t race in the upcoming edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Just a little over three months later, Andlauer completed his personal comeback story, taking Porsche Penske’s third consecutive overall and GTP class win in the Rolex 24 At Daytona in his first official start for the team.

“It’s the best comeback ever,” Andlauer says, “from a s****y injury that just got worse over the race weekend […] then coming back to Daytona, I think that’s the best revenge I could have taken, and the best way to start the year.”

Andlauer calls his win at this year's Rolex 24 at Daytona "the best comeback ever". Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

The 26-year-old has already gotten back behind the wheel for private testing in preparation for the upcoming Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, and had a few weeks to reflect on his Daytona victory, the first of his IMSA career.

“Winning such a big race is always very special. For me, I remember after winning Le Mans in 2018, when I was a kid, it felt very special,” he says.

“But I realized how special it is the year after, when we went back to Le Mans, and that we still had the same potential; the race was also hard, but much harder, and we could not succeed the same way.

“It feels great. It feels amazing. One of the biggest achievements of my life so far,” he says about this year’s Rolex 24. “But I think I will realize it next year, doing the 24 Hours of Daytona. Hopefully it goes the same way, but if it doesn’t, then I’ll be like, ‘Last year felt even more tasty.’

“It’s been a tough race, but everyone executed his job perfectly; in the end, it was very tough, but still smooth. No major incidents or issues. So let’s say, the flavor right now is still amazing, but similar to just after winning the race.

“I have had amazing time home with family and friends, especially for the last few weeks. I had time to enjoy it and reflect on it, and it’s great. But what’s done is done.”

This is the start of Andlauer’s first full season in IMSA, where he drives the No. 7 Penske Porsche 963 alongside three-time Rolex 24 winner Felipe Nasr for all nine races, and 2024 GTD PRO champion Laurin Heinrich for the three biggest endurance races of the year. But he’s hardly a newcomer to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

After coming through Porsche’s renowned one-make and customer GT racing programs, he’s raced part-time in IMSA since 2022. Andlauer took three GTD podiums in 2023, driving a limited schedule for Kellymoss with Riley.

Late in 2024, he was one of the drivers called in to assist Heinrich and AO Racing’s bid for the GTD Pro title down the stretch. And before he was named to Porsche Penske’s 2026 IMSA squad, he had already raced at Sebring and Daytona in Proton Competition’s privateer Porsche 963.

Andlauer's impressive performance at the 2024 6 Hours of Spa for the privateer Proton outfit caught the eye of the factory team. James Moy Photography/Getty Images

It was during his time with Proton, driving their 963 in the 2024 FIA WEC, that Andlauer had his breakout performance in the top class: A magical performance at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps punctuated by multiple jaw-dropping overtakes, overwhelming speed, and it resulted in Proton’s only top-five finish during two and a half seasons in Hypercar.

That performance caught Porsche Penske’s attention as the factory team picked Andlauer for 2025. Despite cutting its racing activities in half, Porsche Penske retained Andlauer as part of its IMSA-only attack – and after Daytona, that difficult choice has been rewarded.

On the transition from privateer to factory Porsche 963 driver, Andlauer says: “When you jump from a private team to the factory team, you always get used to comparing yourself to the other guys, but in a different car.

“Once you jump in the other car, you have a transparent comparison, and this can either really give you confidence or take it away.

“But on my side, I really felt like I just needed to do the same (things) I was always doing over the last few years, to perform, as well as working closely with the team. Everything, from my point of view, went very smooth.

“For Porsche, it was not a very easy year in WEC last year, with a lot of ups and downs – maybe more downs. But I learned a lot, and I had a great year so I’m happy to continue the journey here in the U.S.”

Sebring is the next stop on Andlauer’s first full-time IMSA campaign, where he, Nasr, and Heinrich will look to sweep the so-called “36 Hours of Florida” and take victory in the first two races of the season. After that, he’ll visit two new street circuits, Long Beach and Detroit, then he’ll race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time in his career. He’ll also get a new perspective at some circuits that he’s not driven in a couple of years, such as Watkins Glen.

“I was talking with Mathieu (Jaminet) last year about Watkins Glen,” Andlauer recalled, “and he says, it’s completely different to from the GT to the Hypercar.

“You can run the car pretty low, you have very good downforce, and the car really feels like a prototype. Which is quite a bit different to, for example, Sebring – with all the bumps, you cannot really run the car the same way. I think it’s going to be a couple of very exciting races this year.”

It won’t be easy for Porsche Penske Motorsport to pair its third straight Rolex 24 win with a third straight collection of GTP titles, but already Andlauer and Nasr have proven to be a successful combination in the biggest race of the IMSA season.

If they continue to build on that, Andlauer will have a great opportunity to return to Atlanta in October – and could leave with a much happier memory of his time there, potentially, as an IMSA champion.