Porsche held its annual Night of Champions event over the weekend and with that came the news its 2014 LMP1 racecar will be called the 919 hybrid.
Also, as expected, 33-year-old Marc Lieb and 24-year-old Brendon Hartley were named as the final two drivers to form the six-man squad charged with the responsibility of returning Porsche to the LMP1 category.
Porsche 919 hybrid driver line up
- Timo Bernhard (GER)
- Romain Dumas (FRA)
- Brendon Hartley (NZL)
- Neel Jani (SUI)
- Marc Lieb (GER)
- Mark Webber (AUS)
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 Mans-winning 917, but it is also with a view to the 918 Spyder, and acknowledges the company’s embarkation into the hybrid future.
“Maximum efficiency in energy consumption is the directive of the new WEC regulations for the works-entered class 1 prototypes – and that is also the direction for the automobile future.â€
It’s not known publicly yet which drivers will share the two 919 hybrids, but looking at the lineup of the six should Porsche decide to go with height that could see Mark Webber share his car with Marc Lieb and Brendon Hartley. Which would leave the other 919 with a crew of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani. You’d be happy with that if you were Porsche, you’d think.
In other news Porsche now has a 51% stake in Manthey Racing, a team which has celebrated success at circuits around the globe, notably including 24 hour endurance race victories at Le Mans and the Nürburgring.