Motorsport photoRachit ThukralWed, December 3, 2025 at 5:19 PM UTC·12 min readIt’s hard to assess a programme that did not run its full course. The Porsche 963 LMDh that made its World Endurance Championship debut in 2023 was conceived for a far longer stay at the top than the three seasons it ultimately managed. But as the German manufacturer wrestled with slowing EV growth and weakening demand in China, it was forced to make cuts in one area that has been central to its identity and heritage: endurance racing.
Of course, it’s still possible that the Volkswagen Group brand could return to the WEC’s top class in the coming years, depending upon its financial health. And there is still a remote chance that the 963 could remain on the grid next year in the hands of customer teams. But for now, Porsche Penske Motorsport is bowing out of Hypercar - and without a victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhile that gap in Porsche’s trophy cabinet is glaring, the 963’s stint in the WEC can still be viewed as a success, particularly when measured against how far the programme evolved from its challenging beginnings.
Early troubles
It was in late 2020 that Porsche announced it would be returning to the top echelon of endurance racing with a twin assault on the WEC and IMSA under the new LMDh regulations.
After the end of the 919 Hybrid LMP1 programme in 2017, Porsche was returning to the WEC just five seasons later. This was an enormous undertaking as Porsche had to rebuild its top-class operation from scratch, commit to two series at once and be the first manufacturer to navigate a brand new hybrid package.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe in-house team that ran the 919 Hybrid had long been absorbed by other parts of Porsche Motorsport. To replace it, Porsche partnered with Roger Penske’s legendary outfit, reviving a partnership that had borne so much success with the RS Spyder.
Choosing LMDh over the more flexible LMH platform added further layers of complexity. Porsche now had to integrate major external partners into the project - Multimatic as its preferred chassis supplier and Bosch, Williams Advanced Engineering and Xtrac for the hybrid system common to all LMDh cars. It meant major performance-critical parts were out of Porsche’s direct control.
Porsche LMDh
Porsche LMDhEven so, Porsche was the first manufacturer to have an LMDh car up and running, with the 963 hitting its Weissach test track in January 2022 - a full year ahead of its debut. On the face of it, everything was going well. However, the development of the car was proving to be far more challenging than Porsche had expected, with the hybrid system in particular running into several reliability issues.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe difficulties were greatly enhanced by the fact that Porsche was the only manufacturer insisting on running customer teams from the very inception of the programme.
“We were very early in the LMDh category, so we were kind of like the guinea pig, but by choice, to find out a lot of things, which were not thought about in the beginning,” Porsche’s LMDh project leader Urs Kuratle recalled in an interview with Motorsport.com.
“We had all these difficulties - I'm not saying hybrid issues - developing a car with so many different partners onboard.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“We realised pretty soon actually that it was not going to be easy. That was not because somebody was not doing the job correctly. Everybody, [including] all the partners, tried to do the best job possible, but we simply found out that the car is very complex.
“It's difficult enough if you develop it all in-house with a very clear structure, and it makes it way more difficult if you have different partners onboard with different philosophies. I'm not saying there was a wrong philosophy, it was just a different one.
“And to bring all that together and make it a successful car at the very early stage of the project, that was a challenge.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHigh expectations
After a year of testing and troubleshooting, the Porsche 963 made its competition debut at the Daytona 24 Hours in 2023, before venturing into Hypercar for the first time at the 1000 Miles of Sebring. Given the 963 was the successor to the all-conquering 919 Hybrid, expectations were sky high for Porsche’s latest prototype. “If you go with Porsche and the team is called Porsche Penske Motorsport, if those big brands or big names are there, you have to go to win, you are not going to come second or third or whatever,” Kuratle admitted.
"So that was always the clear expectation. But also you have to be realistic and that's expectation management, but it's not always easy [to manage expectations].”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLe Mans setback
#75 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr, Mathieu Jaminet, Nick Tandy
#75 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr, Mathieu Jaminet, Nick TandyIt just took two races for Porsche to score a WEC podium, as Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer claimed third place at Portimao with the #6 963. But the real test for the brand was always going to be Le Mans, a race where it enjoyed more success than any other manufacturer in history.
However, it’s safe to say that Porsche’s highly-anticipated return to Le Mans in 2023 was a major letdown. Dane Cameron, Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen finished ninth in class (and 16th overall) in the best of the 963s, as a series of accidents and reliability dramas (including a late driveshaft issue for the #5 entry) derailed its three factory cars. For Lotterer, this was a reflection of the “brutal reality” Porsche was facing.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut Porsche took the result on the chin and set about fixing every part of the project, from the car to the operations, in a bid to come back stronger next time.
“We have to say that [Le Mans 2023] was not our best approach as a team,” Kuratle conceded. “We learned a lot of lessons - it was a very long list.
“But the Le Mans '23 was also in a way a game changer because that brought us together. There was no choice other than sitting together and solving the problems together as a team. That also makes you come together. It either splits you up completely and you end up in a fight, or you come out of it stronger.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“That's basically what we did. It was challenging again, because human factors also came into play, but we started to [analyse] point by point. Then, towards the end of the ‘23 season, the results came in the championship also.”
Indeed, Porsche’s LMDh project was on the upturn in the latter part of its maiden WEC campaign. At the Fuji 6 Hours, the two factory Porsches qualified third and fourth, with Vanthoor making a brilliant launch to put the #6 entry in the lead in the early phase of the race.
Over in North America, Porsche also scored two wins in quick successions at Road America and Indianapolis, following a maiden win earlier in the year at Long Beach.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAfter a tough start to the programme, the momentum was certainly on Porsche’s side heading into the 2024 season.
The turning point
Overall winner #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Laurens Vanthoor
Overall winner #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Laurens VanthoorThe real breakthrough arrived at the 2024 Daytona 24 Hours. Cameron, Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr and Josef Newgarden scored victory in IMSA’s biggest enduros after a tense late duel with the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac of Pipo Derani, Jack Aitken and Tom Blomqvist. This was Porsche’s 19th outright victory in the Florida enduro and the first since 2003.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementPorsche followed its Daytona triumph with its first Hypercar win in Qatar, and suddenly the whole programme was on the path towards championship success.
“Daytona 2024 was a difficult race, because we had some technical problems with some components ahead of the race,” Kuratle said. “[But] the way we treated those and the way we came out of Daytona, that was probably one of the biggest game changers at the time. It's an old saying that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
“The difference between Le Mans '23 and Daytona '24 was that the team grew together. We went through every single point and managed to solve the problems.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Then we had the Qatar race in '24 and then everybody believed more, and there was also self-confidence.”
Porsche remained a strong contender for the remainder of the year, with Estre, Vanthoor and Lotterer scoring the drivers’ title and Porsche itself just missing out on the manufacturers’ championship to Toyota. The WEC achievements were supplemented by a clean sweep of titles in IMSA, cementing the 963’s status as a frontrunner in both championships.
“We were rewarded for the hard work,” Kurtale said. “But once you win the championship, there's always a Monday after the race and then you're looking for the next one.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdjusting to a new reality in 2025
Porsche updated the front suspension of the 963 before the start of the 2025 season. This was actually the second time Porsche had used evo jokers on its LMDh prototype following a discrete update it introduced prior to 2024.
The revised 963 annihilated the competition in IMSA, winning the opening four races of the season with relative ease. However, the reality couldn’t have been more different in the WEC, where Porsche was reduced to an also-ran. In the three races leading up to Le Mans, it failed to finish higher than eighth as the WEC’s Balance of Performance system became a major stumbling block.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFrom the outside, the disparity between the IMSA-winning 963 and its WEC struggles was stark. But Porsche wasn’t the only manufacturer to be adversely affected by the BoP, with its 2024 rival Toyota also left to squabble for lower points-paying positions.
Asked if it was hard for Porsche to accept the lack of results in the WEC, Kuratle said: “If you compete these days in endurance racing with all the constraints involved, you cannot expect to win every race.
“We did win the first four races in IMSA. The governance bodies do have to react one way or another. If you are competition-driven, it's always hard to accept that you do not win.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“You have to say that there were some mistakes. The drivers had to drive on the limit in the races we did not win.
“We don't like to make compromises, but sometimes you have to.”
Third crack at Le Mans
#4 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Pascal Wehrlein
#4 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Felipe Nasr, Nick Tandy, Pascal WehrleinPorsche had previously admitted it wasn’t “good enough” during its second Le Mans outing with the 963 in 2023. This year, however, the car was fast and reliable, and PPM got every call right on the pit wall. Yet, Porsche had to face a heartbreaking defeat, as the satellite #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P claimed the top spot by 14s.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMotivating a crew that had done everything right only to concede defeat would typically be tough. But, contrary to expectations, the near-loss boosted morale within PPM and became the catalyst for a stronger showing in the second half of the season.
“We did everything right. We came second against a very good competitor. We came second in the biggest endurance race in the world. We did a great job,” Kuratle said. “It was not enough, but I don't think it was difficult to motivate the team after the race. We were fighting until the end.
“We struggled a bit the first couple of races this year in the WEC. We had to lift every stone before Le Mans to find out what happened and what was going on.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“At Le Mans, we saw that there was a lot of hard work ahead of Le Mans. We solved many problems and there was a very strong result. Unfortunately, it was only a P2.
“I know this question is easier to answer now than just an hour after the race. Everybody else would have been happy to have a car performing as good as ours or a team performing as good as we performed in Le Mans this year. Except the #83 Ferrari. That's the way it is.”
Late title tilt
A rejuvenated PPM team claimed victory at Austin in September, becoming surprise contenders for the championship in the final leg of the season.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementUnfortunately, the points gap to Ferrari was too large to bridge and PPM endured a disastrous race in the Bahrain finale - one Kuratle described as the most disappointing for the programme. Nevertheless, Porsche ended the season a solid third in the manufacturers’ race, only behind Ferrari and Toyota. Combined with its dominant run in IMSA, it was a successful year for the 963.
Urs Kuratle, Head of LMDh Porsche Motorsport, Roger Penske, Team Penske
Urs Kuratle, Head of LMDh Porsche Motorsport, Roger Penske, Team PenskeIt felt like an unfortunate moment for the WEC programme to end, given Porsche was preparing another evolution of the 963 that promised a stronger return next year.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementDespite the unfinished business, Porsche leaves the WEC with its head held high. The Le Mans win never came, nor did the manufacturers’ championship. But Porsche won almost everything else across two major series, transforming a shaky start into a championship-winning package.
“Everybody can be proud - every single team member can be proud of what we have achieved,” said Kuratle.
“Now we can proudly say that the Porsche 963 is the most successful LMDh car in both of the championships.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“We could win championships, races and everything, we had a lot of success.”
Read Also:
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Porsche Penske announces 2026 IMSA driver line-up after WEC exit
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