WEC 2026 - Porsche is out/withdraws

Porsche pulls out of WEC - but remains in IMSA
The German marque will exit the WEC Hypercar division at the end of 2025

 

sad, prototype racing at Le Mans without Porsche just isn’t the same. hopefully the privateers stick around

interesting that they’re cutting this program due to economic reasons but keeping Formula E, especially with Porsche walking back their EV plans

 

Wow. I figured Porsche would stay in WEC until they won LeMans with the 963 given how close they were this year. I was at their debut in 2023 at Daytona and even though I'm a BMW guy I loved seeing the 963 up close. The BoP is a double edged sword...helps the less competitive cars, but if you hurt the better run teams and cars you end up having them leave. I suppose their IMSA car can get entry into the 24 Hours of LeMans next year.

 

I hope this frees up some money for Porsche Classic to make parts for my 928.

 

Everyone chewing out the ACO needs to get a grip. This ain't their fault. Porsche got salty over losing the 24. It's that simple. That's why they're not completely closing their program, and are staying in IMSA. Honestly, good for the ACO to not bend over.

LMDh works for IMSA. But it's an inferior class to LMH. Porsche should've done what Ferrari, Aston, Puegoet, and Toyota did, and invested in a full LMH program. I mean, if anybody has any right to complain, it's the LMH teams that are spending more money, only to get bigger handicaps.

Either make everybody build according to the same platform, or separate the classes. Too many cars, and they're all wanting an advantage, or threatening to leave. Not everybody can go for the overall victory, and if some can't handle that, they need to use the door Porsche was shown.

 

Yep, but the WEC needs LMDh cars to fill up their grid.
That's why they did that convergence LMH-LMDh, to have US entries at their venues.
IMSA don't seem to need LMH cars in their championship, do they ?
Porsche intended to sell their cars to private teams, most of them US based, , LMH teams like Ferrari didn't.
IMO, they should have kept the 2 categories separate, but allow them to run in both championships.
But the ACO (WEC rights holder) don't want that: they always want a LMH car to win Le Mans !!

 

IMO that was a shortsighted decision by IMSA (and/or ACO, depending on the politics I guess). Yes, IMSA's grids are full.....mostly with GTD Pro/Am teams. allowing LMH would have been awesome, Ferrari 499 wins Daytona and Sebring in addition to Le Mans? come on. stuff of legends. I would happily give up most of the GT3 Pro/Am entries for that.

 

I think Porsche made too big a bet on the EV and now are paying the consequences. Just my $0.02/