Porsche may be getting a good spanking over cheating on its road car diesel emissions right now but the VW group brand is heading the right way in motorsport. Beginning in 2019, Porsche will compete with a factory team in the Formula E Championship.
As a result, the company will with great regret end its involvement in the LMP1 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at the end of the 2017 season. At the same time, Porsche will continue to focus its attention on international GT racing, campaigning the 911 RSR in the GT class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The highlight of the World Endurance Championship is the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in addition to the North American IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and other long-distance endurance classics.
This realignment of motorsport activities for Porsche stems from the direction set out for the company in Porsche Strategy 2025, which will see Porsche develop a combination of pure GT vehicles and fully electric sports cars, such as the first fully electric Porsche model, based upon the Mission E concept car. “Entering Formula E and achieving success in this category are the logical outcomes of our Mission E project. The growing freedom for in-house technology developments makes Formula E attractive to us,” said Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board of Porsche AG responsible for Research and Development. “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.” Porsche has already taken the first steps toward developing its own Formula E racing car this year.
