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Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach said that two wins in a season is “not enough” for the brand to consider its factory participation in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship a success. Laudenbach’s comments come following Porsche’s new “Sportwagenschmiede 35” brand strategy, revealed last week, that will see a restructuring of its executive board departments and a reduction of 5,000 jobs by 2035, among a number of other changes. Details on how the German manufacturer’s new strategy could affect its motorsport involvement, specifically in sports car racing, remains unclear, although Laudenbach stressed that nothing has changed for the time being, having reconfirmed plans to continue its works involvement in the WeatherTech Championship. He also reaffirmed Porsche will not be back on the WEC Hypercar grid in 2027, with no current plans to return to the world championship following its exit at the end...

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI Antonio Felix da Costa believes it was “100 percent” the right decision to leave the Porsche Formula E squad to join the FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar field this year with Alpine, despite uncertainty surrounding his future. Da Costa took five Formula E wins in a three-season spell with Porsche but opted to quit the German manufacturer at the conclusion of the 2024-25 campaign to join Jaguar, which also opened up the opportunity for him to compete in the top class of the WEC for the first time with a factory squad. However, fewer than four months after being announced as an Alpine WEC driver, the French manufacturer revealed it would be departing the series at the end of the year. Philippe Sinault, boss of the Signatech squad that runs the Alpine A424s, has subsequently been working on plans to keep the cars on the WEC grid into 2027. Despite all of the uncertainty, da Costa is adamant that he made the right decision for the long...

Photo: AO by Absolute AO Racing will make its Intercontinental GT Challenge competition debut with a Pro class Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo entry for next month’s Suzuka 1000km. The Chicago-area based team will join forces with top Chinese outfit Absolute Racing to field a Porsche for Laurin Heinrich, Alessio Picariello and Julien Andlauer, while debuting a new AO character in the form of ‘Bushi Rex’. It comes as Porsche leads the IGTC manufacturers’ championship following Lionspeed GP’s victory in last month’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. AO team principal Gunnar Jeannette commented: “AO is excited to partner with Absolute Racing and Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific for the 2026 Suzuka 1000km. “With a stellar driver line-up and an amazing new character, we are very much looking forward to putting on a show for our Japanese fans. “This will be our first foray into Intercontinental GT Challenge, and we believe we have all the pieces in pla...

Photo: Opel Theo Pourchaire looks set to exit Peugeot’s FIA World Endurance Championship lineup to focus on his new Formula E commitments for sister marque Opel next season. Formula 2 champion and ex-IndyCar Series driver Pourchaire became the first official signing for Opel’s new Formula E team on Tuesday, having already been part of the broader Stellantis family via his work for Peugeot in the WEC since last year. The Frenchman will prioritize the all-electric series, which features a single clash with the 2027 WEC schedule between the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo and the Shanghai E-Prix in July. That follows the rescheduling of the Monaco E-Prix, also confirmed on Tuesday, which had been set to clash with the WEC’s Spa round in May. An Opel spokesperson confirmed to Sportscar365 that Pourchaire is scheduled to be present for all Formula E rounds in 2026-27. This presents an issue for Peugeot, which requires at least four of the six drivers on its WEC roster to not be active in F...

Source: Sports Car 365

Source: Sports Car 365

Road America’s debut as an IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup round with the six-hour Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix presented a different challenge than the circuit’s traditional sprint race. Track temperatures climbed throughout the afternoon, while nine full-course cautions repeatedly reset strategies. Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque kept the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R in contention throughout the six-hour race before Albuquerque took control in the closing stages. He then managed two late restarts to secure the victory. Taylor credited Michelin’s hard-compound Pilot Sport Endurance tire for providing consistency across the changing conditions. “We saw many different conditions, and the hard Michelin tire was suited to it all,” he said. “Whether it was 70 degrees or 80 degrees.” While Sunday’s race featured more cautions than extended green-flag running, the event still demanded adaptability. Strategy shifted throughout the afternoon, manufa...