WEC 2026 - Porsche is out/withdraws

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/

 

When you can't compete... Just retreat.. VW did same with Lamborghini.... And they cancelled Audis program too.. Compared to Ferrari... Porsche did win last year's driver championship... On the contrary Ferrari won no championship with 499p yet..

 

But LMH cars ARE allowed in IMSA, aren't they ?
That's how Aston Martin participate, if I am correct.
But most LMH constructors concentrate on the WEC, and don't include Daytona and Sebring in their plans.
It's a miscalculation in the case of Ferrari, I agree.

 

Sure, there are too many constructors involved in the WEC, for all of them to hope for success.
The elephant is the room, nobody is allowed to talk about, is the BOP bias against LMDh imposed by the ACO.
The ACO wants LMH cars to win races in its championship.
Like Acura and BMW, Porsche has finally understood this; their departure don't surprise me.

 

They can't compete in LeMans because Ferrari has been handed clear BOP victories for 3 years in a row now.

 

I think Doonan is on the record saying that he would love Ferrari to come.

I think part of the issue here is WEC requiring 2 car factory entries for LMH. So even if the factory cars pull out of WEC, you should still be able to have the privateer Proton car. I think WEC will pull back an this rule at some point.

 

I think it was just the first year that they weren't accepting Hypercar entries. Might have been 2 years. Certainly with Aston Hypercars are in IMSA. I seem recall Doonan saying he would love Ferrari to come.

Some of IMSA's other requirements would have prevented teams like Glickenhaus, Alpine and Peugeot.

 

I thought there was a technical reason why LMH wasn't allowed in IMSA but maybe that changed? or maybe they are allowed but too compromised?

Toyota and Ferrari both already pay the IMSA "marketing" (cough cough) fee so I don't think it's that

 

No. Ferrari was just too lazy in 2023 to try to join IMSA in 2024. They said they don't care in the sense they don't think Daytona is important enough to them. And they didn't like how they would have to go with IMSA's wind tunnel testing again after doing it for WEC and they said that was redundant and not worth their energy to get a car entered. Basically excuses with no real reasons. It probably came down to money and they don't want to admit it.

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/ferrari-daytona-bid-with-499p-not-on-radar-for-2024/

 

I think it's money.

 

Probably that Sebring is worth more than Daytona ?

 

I was at Super Sebring weekend in 2023 and got to see the 499P's debut then. They got 3rd in the 1000, which is cool, but not sure they are interested in Sebring. How do I put this...it's not a high end experience/event at all. I would laugh seeing the Scuderia guys visiting Green Park after seeing their reactions.

 

lol

that said, Le Mans is famous for tens of thousands of drunk Brits camping in the forest....

 

IIRC the first year they didn't want to try to BOP both platforms together. They wanted a year of just getting used to LMDH.

I recall some interviews with Risi saying he would love to enter the 499P but would need a lot of support from Ferrari to make it happen. I think money is a big reason we don't see the Hypercars over here but LeMans is the other. Thats why you see Genesis and Ford starting in WEC instead of IMSA. LeMans is more important.

 

I went to the Roar Before the 24, 24 Hours of Daytona, Super Sebring weekend, and 24 Hours of Le Mans all in 2023. Hands down the Rolex 24 was the best in terms of facilities, ability to view the race, and access to garages/teams. The worst was Le Mans. Could barely see anything. Way too crowded. Parking was a nightmare. Le Mans did however have the best non-racing experience. The Le Mans museum was amazing...they had almost all the winning cars that year on display (the real ones). Helicopter ride was fun. And the merchandise including memorabilia was crazy...even saw one of Senna's F1 licenses for sale from like 1989 or something. Sebring was the best in terms of autograph session for WEC + IMSA and getting posters...and of course Green Park partying lol.

 

That's totally unfair to Ferrari.

LMDh was not supposed to be the top tier category at Le Mans, nor was it ever designed to compete for overall wins. The overall win was supposed to be LMH, but people complained that prototypes from IMSA weren't getting to compete at Le Mans. When Porsche, Cadi, BMW and Acura signed up for LMDh, they lobbied for the LMH cars to be handicapped hard so they could fight for the overall wins. They didn't want to be an LMP2. They wanted to compete for overalls wins.

Look, I'm enjoying the show in WEC, but it's a farce that the Pugs and Astons struggle, and Ferrari and Toyota are getting beaten by Porsche and Cadi. When we that in a straight fight, the former would leave the latter in the dust. If anything, we're lucky the LMH entries didn't get pissed off and cancel their programs, when they were told they'd be slowed down so bad they'd be fighting P2 cars.

That's what killed ALMS. LMP2 was fine, but Porsche and Acura, again, wanted to compete for overalls wins. They knew they didn't have near the top speed for Le Mans victories. This offended Audi, Pugeot, and Aston, who had been keeping LMP1 alive, and they stopped their ALMS programs.

If an manufacture can build an LMDh car that can take the fight to the P1 guys, awesome. But crippling the LMH cars so that they're sometimes getting lapped by the LMDh cars is not something the ACO should've ever done. Wanna know you can fight for the overall? Spend the money and build the kind of car Ferrari and Toyota have, or learn to be happy winning your category.

Otherwise, split the hyperclass into P1 and P2, or make LMDh more open to manufactures that want to build something totally unique to themselves.

 

Some good discussion on this on Midweek Motorsport right now

 

I understand that, but could you please highlight some of the technical differences between the two that give such an advantage to the LMH cars that the LMDh cars don't have or can't easily have? The most glaring difference I saw at Sebring of the two cars with bodywork off was the front brakes. The 499P had the F1 style front brakes with elaborate cover over the rotor where you could barely see the disc near the caliper. The LMDh/LMH Caddy, Acura, etc, had regular style exposed rotors. Pics I took attached.

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