Porsche LMDh boss Urs Kuratle has revealed that talks are ongoing with “people in IMSA” as the future of the German brand’s 963 customer programme begins to take shape for 2025 and beyond.
The cost of competing in Hypercar and GTP as a private team is only getting steeper and for 2025 (the third year of the LMDh ruleset) it looks increasingly likely that the number of customer Porsche 963s competing will shrink.
While JDC Miller is working on running a second car in IMSA GTP for 2025, Proton Competition – which currently runs a single 963 in the FIA WEC and IMSA – is yet to decide on its future in both championships and HERTZ Team JOTA appears likely to move its WEC programme elsewhere.
Speaking with select outlets (including DSC) at Interlagos last weekend, Kuratle was asked directly for an update on the future of Porsche’s LMDh customer programme.
“We are in discussions with all the customers and if the situation is that we need to or should sell some more cars, then we will sell more cars. But it is not decided yet,” he said.
“There would be (additional) cars available (in 2025),” he added. “It’s not that the cars are built, we would have to build them, but the chassis are available and parts are available. It’s a question of the demand.
“We are talking to people in IMSA, in the United States and it’s all open for now.”
And whether or not there is real demand for new cars is the (multi) million dollar question.
Kuratle was then asked directly about the impact that JOTA’s long-rumoured potential move would have. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t confirm nor deny whether or not the British team was moving on.
Instead, he spoke in hypotheticals when asked if there would be additional capacity from the customer programme to plug a JOTA-sized gap and made it clear that multiple “scenarios” are on the table going forward.
“That’s fair to say (that there would be additional cars available),” he replied. “If JOTA leaves then the customer support has some capacity and we will have to see how we will deal with it. Whether that’s a replacement customer or not is up for discussion.
“Having three (privateer cars in WEC) is something you can work with,” he continued when asked whether or not the current number in the WEC is ideal. “We have made big steps in reliability and that’s because we’ve been able to complete more kilometres with customers.”
Attracting new customer teams for 2025 will be a hard task. With eight-figure budgets understood to be required for customer Hypercar and GTP programmes, you can practically count the number of teams ready, willing and able on one hand.
United Autosports has come close to stepping up from LMP2 on multiple occasions, but its ambition has always been to operate a factory team. Vector Sport almost made the step too, with Isotta, and MDK Motorsports revealed to DSC last year that it has aspirations to compete with an LMDh.
Beyond that, ELMS powerhouses like Algarve Pro Racing and Inter Europol certainly have the personnel to take on a programme (but would surely require additional commercial punch) and Ganassi is set to be on the open market once its Cadllac deal comes to an end. Chip Ganassi’s team is unlikely to go customer LMDh racing though and has made it clear to RACER that in the short term its future in sportscars is likely in LMP2 or GTD.
There’s also the question of grid space in the WEC, which is set to expand to 40 cars for 2025.
Cadillac, Lamborghini and Isotta Fraschini are all working on bringing an additional car apiece to meet the ‘two-car rule’ requirement, and Aston Martin is entering with two Valkyries.
Hypothetically, with an identical 18-car LMGT3 field, the five aforementioned additional factory cars and all the current two-car factories returning, even with JOTA’s customer cars gone that count reaches 40, leaving no obvious space for new blood.
This, according to JOTA boss Sam Hignett, is unlikely to be a problem though.
“I don’t think there’s many privateer teams that are waiting to get into WEC at the moment,” he told DSC when asked for his thoughts on the ‘two-car’ rule’s impact on the entry.
“I think it’s a very small market. There are three very good teams doing it at the moment but I am not hearing of any teams knocking down the door trying to get in.”
That leaves IMSA’s GTP class, though the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is already running to a capacity grid, even before Aston Martin joins the ranks with Heart of Racing.
Another hot-button topic surrounding Porsche’s prototype programme in 2025 concerns upgrades for the 963.
Prior to Le Mans, Kuratle explained that its plans to introduce a new crankshaft upgrade for the car to solve the car’s inherent vibration issues had been put on ice.
This was due to the team’s improved form, and, as DSC understands, because a 2024 update to the spec Bosch hybrid system that the LMDh manufacturers use has reduced the vibration issue.
A final decision on the update, Kuratle said previously, would come after the Le Mans 24 Hours. And now it seems that Porsche is evaluating other areas to improve on the car with evo ‘Jokers’.
“The crankshaft is dead, we are not doing the crankshaft, everyone is informed,” he said. “In the normal process we are thinking about what is the next thing we want to update is. Next year is the next point we can update something.
“We are having discussions internally. The only thing we can say is there are no big things in the pipeline, like last year. There’s a sensor here, a small thing there, but no big things.”
