Manthey forming the tip of the spear for Porsche at Le Mans this year

It was beyond strange on Tuesday, watching the cars pushed onto the start-finish straight at the Circuit de la Sarthe for the annual all-field shot and seeing only two Porsche 911s line up.

It’s been a long time since the German marque had so little representation in the Le Mans 24 Hours. In fact, with no 963s in Hypercar and no additional GT customer teams beyond its two-car full-season FIA WEC LMGT3 attack, this year is its smallest contingent since the brand’s first entry in 1951.

But that doesn’t change the approach of the highly decorated Manthey team, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2026 and proudly flying the flag for the brand by carrying special designs to commemorate 75 years of Porsche Motorsport on both its cars.

“It doesn’t change a lot," Patrick Arkenau, the team’s racing director, says of Porsche's low car count. "Sure, the infrastructure has changed, as we’re in our own hospitality rather than Porsche hospitality, but our mindset, and how we operate, hasn’t changed at all.

“It’s definitely something special to be the only team representing Porsche; it’s an honor, and we are happy we are able to do it. But it doesn’t change how we approach the race.”

Manthey has a target placed firmly on its back this week. It is undefeated at Le Mans in the LMGT3 era, and once again brings two 911 GT3.R 992s to the event with driver line-ups that have every intention of winning and extending its streak.

What has given Manthey an edge at the biggest race of the season since 2024? Arkenau feels in part it’s down to the team’s ability to deal with the “biggest pressure, which is the pressure we put on ourselves.”

“There’s not one particular thing,” he adds. “We just have a good approach, and we make sure we put together strong, consistent line-ups. We have also benefited from consistency in our engineering team.

“We’ve had the same engineers really since we started in WEC; everyone works well and knows the cars. We have a particular knowledge of these cars because none of our staff is freelance; we are all full-time Manthey. They are working on this every day, and this, somehow, is the key to success.

“Of course you need luck, but you have to be strong too.”

Porsche may only have two bullets in its gun this year, but both driver crews Manthey has assembled for the WEC and Le Mans can expect to run at the sharp end.

The Bend example, Sporting No. 92, leads the championship after two podium finishes at Imola and Spa. Headed up by six-time Le Mans class winner Richard Lietz, it’s a car that should be on everyone’s radar, as Riccardo Pera is rapid and Yasser Shahin, on his return to the team after winning the 2024 edition of Le Mans with it, looks right at home again.

It’s been a slightly tougher start to the campaign for the sister Manthey DK Engineering 911, driven by James Cottingham, Timur Boguslavskiy and Ayhancan Güven, all of whom are new to Manthey’s LMGT3 setup. But there have been encouraging signs, notably at Imola where the trio finished just off the podium.

Le Mans is of course a different challenge. It’s by far the longest race on the calendar, and the LMGT3 field is significantly larger than it is at the other WEC rounds, with additional cars joining from the ELMS, IMSA and GT World Challenge. Nevertheless, Arkenau believes his drivers are gelling well and up to the task.

“Yasser is even better now than when he left us in 2024,” he says. “He’s had new experiences and has met the challenge of adapting to new things. So we’re happy to work together again. The rest of the line-up is unchanged too, so that car has high expectations.

“Car 91 has three new drivers, but we won DTM last year with Ayhancan. He has a strong mindset in difficult situations and is helping Timur and James to adapt to the car quickly. They are not used to these types of cars. Timur used to mid and front-engined cars, like the AMG, Lexus and BMW, so going to a rear-engined car means a change to driving style, but he’s making huge progress, and James is just super solid.

“Having the Qatar race (which was postponed) to start the season would have been nice, but even without that, we are at the level where we want to be going into this weekend. We're ready for the fight."