Porsche launches its 2014 competitor for Le Mans

Porsche successfully tested its new LMP1 sports prototype which will be raced at the 2014 season of the World Endurance Championships and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The new prototype that was rolled out at Porsche’s private track at Weissach was driven by Timo Bernhard, one of their works drivers. 

Timo Bernhard said “I was involved in the development of the new car right from the outset.” He and his colleague Romain Dumas are the first two drivers and will be carrying out a majority of the testing at various international circuits before it makes its track debut next year. Fritz Enzinger, Head of LMP1 said “Our newly formed team has worked with utmost concentration on getting this highly complex vehicle on the track as soon as possible. This allows us a few additional weeks for more testing and further development.”

Since sister squad Audi was successful in making a LMP1 car, Porsche too tried its hand at one. They built a separate unit all together with 200 employees to work on the project, and that gave the engineers a clean sheet to start from and completely focus on the high-speed race car.

Board Member for Research and Development at Porsche AG, Wolfgang Hatz said “During the development of our new LMP1 vehicle, we faced the same challenge as in the series production development of our road legal cars. Our aim was to achieve the best possible efficiency without compromising performance.”

Formula 1 Mark Webber was rumoured to possibly drive for Porsche in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as the Australian has been a big fan of the brand. However Porsche has been tight-lipped about it and has rubbished most of the rumours about any such talk or discussion. Nevertheless that has only quietened the rumours, but not silenced them yet.