At the traditional Night of Champions in Stuttgart, Porsche presented its 2026 motorsports activities including its roster of works and contracted drivers, and a brief summary of its factory and customer racing efforts.
Porsche has also confirmed that it will participate in the upcoming FIA World Endurance Championship, at least in the LMGT3 category, with just a few days remaining until the 2026 series entry list is published.
The factory Porsche Penske Motorsport team will go for its third straight IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title in the premier GTP class. As revealed earlier this week, Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor will drive the #6 Penske Porsche 963 full-time, while Julien Andlauer joins Felipe Nasr in the #7 Porsche. Matt Campbell (#6) and Laurin Heinrich (#7) will support Porsche Penske in the three longest rounds of the season at Daytona, Sebring, and Le Mans.
Privateer JDC-Miller MotorSports will also run their 963 in IMSA for a fourth season, with drivers to be confirmed by the team at a later date.
However, there is no mention of customer support for the 963 in the WEC – though it is worth noting that Proton Competition’s WEC Hypercar was not mentioned in Porsche’s 2025 motorsports announcements either.
But the most successful manufacturer in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will not be completely shut out of the series: The newest Porsche 911 GT3 R will compete in the WEC’s LMGT3 class in 2026, one of many top-level series in which the latest 992.2-generation GT3 R will race in next season – including IMSA, GT World Challenge, and DTM.
2026 also marks the debut of Porsche’s new 911 Cup one-make racer, also based on the newest 992.2-generation 911, that will compete in the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup, and in the Carrera Cups of Germany, North America, and Asia Pacific, as well as the Carrera World Cup, scheduled to take place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from 5–8 March.
Today, it was also confirmed that 2024 IMSA GTD PRO Champion Heinrich will be one of two former Porsche Junior drivers promoted to full-fledged Porsche works drivers in 2026. The other is reigning DTM Champion, Ayhancan Güven.
And although no longer with Porsche Penske Motorsport’s LMDh programme, both Nick Tandy and Michael Christensen have retained their works driver status with Porsche for 2026.
Güven and Heinrich replace departing Porsche works drivers António Félix da Costa and Mathieu Jaminet, who’ve each already begun their new jobs with Alpine and Genesis respectively, and after 22 years, Romain Dumas has also been let go by Porsche. (Gianmaria Bruni, who was dropped last year, was also recognised for his Porsche tenure on stage tonight.)
Porsche’s list of 17 officially contracted drivers includes newly-promoted Alessandro Ghiretti, who moves up the pyramid after two seasons as a Porsche Junior Driver. Dorian Boccolacci, who is sponsored by Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific (PMAP), and Englishman Harry King, have also been added to the list of official drivers.
Tenured Porsche driver Patrick Pilet, whose time as a Porsche factory driver goes back to 2008, is no longer on the list of contracted drivers for 2026, along with Patric Niederhauser, Jaxon Evans, and Lars Kern.
Notably, Michelle Gatting remains on the list, despite the recent announcement of Iron Dames’ departure from the WEC.
The two new Porsche Juniors for 2026 are reigning Porsche Carrera Cup France champion Marcus Amand (19) and Porsche Carrera Cup Germany race winner Flynt Schuring (19). The two drivers from Finland and the Netherlands, respectively, prevailed in a twelve-driver shootout two weeks ago.
Amand and Schuring will compete in both the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup plus a national Porsche Carrera Cup series next year. They will receive up to €120,000 and a comprehensive driver training programme to assist their development.
Loek Hartog, meanwhile, was awarded the 56th annual Porsche Cup, given to the top private Porsche driver of the past year.
The 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup North America champion took class victories in GT World Challenge Europe and the Intercontinental GT Challenge, finished on the podium at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, and made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut. As his reward, Hartog received the €150,000 top prize.
“Porsche and motorsport – they are inextricably linked. With the Cup version of the 911, we are building one of the most successful and best-selling customer racing cars worldwide: the recently unveiled new model will compete in the Supercup and Carrera Cups in Germany, the USA and Asia Pacific in 2026,” explains Dr Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Research and Development at Porsche AG. “We have been promoting young talent for decades: this autumn, we held another junior talent search, which produced two new talents for 2026.
“We remain committed to endurance racing: in the IMSA with the Porsche 963, in the WEC in the LMGT3 class.
“We learn in motorsport in a highly competitive environment, which also helps us on the road. The interaction between motorsport and series development here in Weissach makes our sports cars unique and fit for the future.”
“The 2025 motorsport year was once again an extremely successful one for Porsche. The titles in the Formula E World Championship and the IMSA series are impressive proof of this,” says Thomas Laudenbach, Head of Porsche Motorsport.
“Second place at Le Mans, just 14 seconds behind – that hurts, no doubt about it. The fact that we were also able to fight for the world championship in the WEC in the end was made possible by tremendous teamwork. We have achieved significant success in customer racing: another class victory at Le Mans, all GT titles in the WEC, DTM victory and only narrowly missed successes in the big 24-hour races at the Nürburgring and Spa.
“Now we have repositioned ourselves and are starting afresh – in Formula E as early as next weekend, and at the end of January in Daytona. The 2026 season will be more exciting than almost any other before.”
2026 Porsche Works Drivers
- Julien Andlauer (FRA)
- Matt Campbell (AUS)
- Michael Christensen (DNK)
- Kévin Estre (FRA)
- Ayhancan Güven (TUR)
- Laurin Heinrich (GER)
- Richard Lietz (AUT)
- Nico Müller (SUI)
- Felipe Nasr (BRA)
- Thomas Preining (AUT)
- Nick Tandy (GBR)
- Laurens Vanthoor (BEL)
- Pascal Wehrlein (GER)
2026 Porsche Contracted Drivers
- Klaus Bachler (AUT)
- David Beckmann (GER)
- Dorian Boccolacci (FRA)
- Bastian Buus (DNK)
- Ricardo Feller (SUI)
- Michelle Gatting (DNK)
- Alessandro Ghiretti (FRA)
- Wolf Henzler (GER)
- Marco Holzer (GER)
- Gabriela Jilkova (CZE)
- Nico Menzel (GER)
- Sven Müller (GER)
- Alessio Picariello (BEL)
- Morris Schuring (NED)
- Marco Seefried (GER)
- Joel Sturm (GER)
2026 Porsche Junior Drivers
- Marcus Amand (FIN)
- Flynt Schuring (NED)
Images © Porsche, IMSA, GTA, SRO/JEP
