Yes. It's true. Porsche today announced that they will be pulling out of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) at the end of 2017. Well as far as LMP1 is concerned that is. This shock decision comes after four super successful years since their comeback to the world's premier endurance racing class in 2013.
It was a return to past glory that culminated in many exciting on-track scraps – particulalry against the likes of Toyota. More importantly it also earned the Weissach-based marque three more overall victories at the 24-Hours of Le Mans, the last of which was achieved earlier this year. Unfortunately that represents the closing of this chapter for as of next year Porsche will be gone: gone to refocus their efforts on the fledging race series known as Formula E.
"Entering Formula E and achieving success in this category are the logical outcomes of our Mission E. The growing freedom for in-house technology developments makes Formula E attractive to us," says Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Research and Development at Porsche AG. “Porsche is working with alternative, innovative drive concepts. For us, Formula E is the ultimate competitive environment for driving forward the development of high-performance vehicles in areas such as environmental friendliness, efficiency and sustainability." Yeah, sad but true. – Thomas Falkiner
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