Motoring News Issue January 2014 Issue 1 Jan 2014 | Page 5

Motoring News

Porsche juniors and a scholarship candidate chosen from the global Porsche
Carrera Cup race series. All current
Porsche factory drivers have received a
contract for the 2014 season. “We’ve
never had such a large driver line-up in
the history of the company,” said Wolfgang Hatz, Board Member for Research
and Development at Porsche AG.
Porsche ‘919 hybrid’ named, LMP1
driver squad complete
Porsche AG has announced its driver
line-up and the vehicle name for its return to the top category of the Sports
Car World Endurance Championship
(WEC) in 2014, with the season highlight at Le Mans.
On the occasion of the Porsche Night of
Champions in December, the young
New Zealander Brendon Hartley (24)
and long-standing Porsche factory
driver Marc Lieb (33) from Germany
were confirmed as regular drivers in
the LMP1 race car, officially called the
‘Porsche 919 hybrid’. Already signed on
for the LMP1 project are Timo Bernhard (32) from Germany, Frenchman
Romain Dumas (36), Neel Jani (30)
from Switzerland, and the Australian
Mark Webber (37).
Wolfgang Hatz, Board Member for Research and Development at Porsche
AG, stated: “We are very proud of our
strong international driver line-up.
Three of the six drivers come from our
own Porsche driver squad, two were
even Porsche juniors. This is something
we are particularly proud of.”
“The vehicle name 919 hybrid follows
on from the tradition of the Le Manswinning 917, but it is also with a view
to the 918 Spyder, and acknowledges
the company’s embarkation into the
hybrid future. With hybrid sports cars
like the Cayenne in the SUV segment,
the Panamera Gran Turismo, and the
918 Spyder super sports car, we are on
the right track. But to continue leading
the way in the future and to merge
sportiness with sustainability, we need
to keep learning. Maximum efficiency
in energy consumption is the directive
of the new WEC regulations for the
works-entered LMP1 prototypes – and
that is also the direction for the automobile future.”
Fr i t z E n z i n ge r, H ea d o f L M P 1 ,
explained: “We had a substantial number of applicants from all classes to
drive the two 919 hybrid race cars. We
were looking for experience, sheer
speed, technical understanding, and
we wanted team players because this
is more important in endurance racing
than in any discipline.”
Strong driver squad wrapped up with
Hartley and Lieb

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Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas
were the first drivers to be selected.
The two bring the experience of seven
overall victories each from 24 hour
races – Nürburgring, Daytona, Spa and
overall victory together at Le Mans with
Audi. In July 2013, the ex-Formula 1
test driver Neel Jani joined the team,
with Mark Webber on-board since the
end of the 2013 Formula 1 season.
Brendon Hartley and Marc Lieb now
complete the squad.
Hartley left his homeland early to advance his racing career in Europe. Following on from successes in the Formula Renault and Formula 3 came the
long-awaited Formula 1 contract – as a
test driver but with precious little
chance to race. Hence, parallel to his F1
commitments, Hartley turned to sports
car racing. “I’m incredibly proud that
Porsche has chosen me,” he said. “I
was deeply impressed at my first outing in Le Mans. But to compete there in
the LMP1 for an iconic company like
Porsche is another dimension completely.”
Marc Lieb was 20 years old when his
career as a race driver at Porsche took
off. In the year 2000, he won the
Porsche Junior driver selection. In addition to a raft of class victories, he also
scored five overall wins at 24 hour
races, four