During its incredible 2024 season, one key target was missed by Porsche Penske Motorsport, as the German marque came up short of a record-extending 20th Le Mans victory.
For 2025, Porsche Penske has reinforced its line-up with reigning Formula E World Champion, and Le Mans rookie, Pascal Wehrlein.
The 30-year-old German will share the additional, one-off #4 Porsche 963 in Hypercar with IMSA GTP drivers’ championship leaders Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy.
Wehrlein, who has been a part of Porsche’s Formula E programme since 2020, made his prototype debut at this year’s 24 hours of Daytona in GTP with customer team JDC-Miller MotorSports.
This was followed by an outing with the works squad at Spa, sharing the #6 Porsche 963 with defending drivers’ world champions Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor, as he ramped up his preparations for Le Mans.
“I think, in terms of driving, I have a very good idea about the car,” Wehrlein told DSC.
“At Daytona, I drove for JDC. Spa was my first race for the team [Porsche Penske], so it was great to see how the team operates, and sharing the car, not with Felipe and Nick, but still with my teammates.
“I definitely got some seat time, which is great and which is important to prepare me for this one.”
Hypercar is the latest top-level category that Wehrlein finds himself competing in. Having defected from the junior formula ladder in 2012 aged 18, he’s impressed in DTM, Formula One and Formula E during the last decade, highlighting his versatility as a driver.
“I think I can adapt my driving quite well into different cars, because I’ve driven already so many different categories.
“I feel always there’s something in common with a car I’ve already driven, and therefore it doesn’t take me too long to adapt to it. Still, there are specialities in every car, and we need to get on top of that, get to understand the tyre, how to extract the most out of it.
“But I think one big benefit from what I can take away from my career so far is that I’ve driven so many different cars, it doesn’t feel difficult to jump into another and get used to it.”
So, which car does the 963 share the most with?
“It reminds me a lot of DTM,” reflects Wehrlein, who spent four seasons racing a Mercedes-AMG C-Coupé in the series from 2013-2018.
“Just in terms of how the car feels, how it reacts on the downforce. It’s a prototype, it’s a sports car, but still it’s also a bit of a touring car. The size of the car and everything, it’s very similar to them. So that’s the closest reference I have to the LMDh car.
“In terms of Formula E or Formula One, there’s actually not much in common that you can compare it with. There might be some systems on the electric part which I can refer to, and I understand very quickly, especially because it’s also Porsche software. Otherwise it’s a very different category for me.”
Alongside the unique challenges of driving a Hypercar, Wehrlein has also been tasked with getting up to speed with multi-class endurance racing, and the skills that set it apart from other disciplines.
“I think the biggest thing to learn about is the traffic, like how to how to judge it, with the different categories particularly in which places to overtake; where can you send it?
“For example, the GT3 cars are super strong on the braking, so it’s not like you can pass them easily on braking. I think it’s just judging and understanding where to place the car to avoid losing a lot of lap time by overtaking other cars, other categories, because that’s something I never had in my career before.
“You know that there are different categories and racing at the same time you have such a different speed, such a different grip level, and I think that’s the part where I’ve been making the biggest progress since I raced the first time in Daytona. Daytona was super helpful, because we had the GT3 and LMP2 there as well.
“I think, in terms of understanding the car and how to drive it, how to extract the performance in one lap and over a long run, that has been quite a smooth transition, but it’s more the traffic management.
Whilst Wehrlein has a shot at winning Le Mans on his debut, something last achieved by Fernando Alonso in 2018, his teammates have a chance of completing an even greater feat.
Nasr and Tandy, alongside Vanthoor, opened their 2025 campaign with victories at the 24 hours of Daytona and 12 hours of Sebring. A win at Le Mans would make them the first drivers to win the unofficial ‘endurance triple crown’ in the same calendar year.
“They have been great,” Wehrlein comments when asked about his co-drivers aboard the #4 Porsche Penske 963.
“They have been very supportive, just in terms of talking about the car, what it needs, what is important for this race. We have to pay attention on the slow zones, and the procedures, so we spent a lot of time together.
“Once you jump into the car and experience everything for the first time, it will still feel different. But I feel so prepared. We had so many chats about everything that it kind of feels like I almost did it already once, you know, because I can take all the experience they have, and that is great.
“One thing I really like about endurance racing is that your teammates, you are so open and so supportive, which I’ve never experienced before.”
Something else Wehrlein has not experienced before is racing in front of a crowd the size of that at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with over 300,000 fans expected to line the Circuit De La Sarthe this year following another sellout.
“I expect this race to be probably the biggest race in terms of numbers that I’ve ever experienced. I mean, we’ve been here already since almost a week, and it was already busy last weekend. And that is great to see.
“From my side, I’m obviously focused on the job and what happens on track in general. I’m someone who is very focused on the driving side, but still, it’s nice to see what big event this is, what heritage and what story is in Le Mans. I’m very happy to be part of it.”
And the chance of standing on the top step of the podium shortly after 4PM on Sunday?
“We try very hard to make it happen.”
Photo credit: Porsche Motorsport
