Porsche AG has announced that it will be withdrawing from the Hypercar class in the FIA World Endurance Championship from the end of the 2025 season. The company will continue to compete in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship and, with the Porsche 963, in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Dr Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Development at Porsche AG, said: “We very much regret that, due to current circumstances, we will not be continuing our involvement in the WEC after this season.”
The move away from the WEC and the commitment to IMSA competition comes after the company announced a ‘strategic realignment’ to investors in September. The re-think comes on the back of a number of headwinds facing the global automotive sector which include tariffs on US imports, slowing demand in China and a reassessment of the timetable of the switch to solely electric vehicles by many countries. Porsche expects its Return on Sales in current financial year to drop from over 14% to potentially less than 2%.
Porsche launched their 963 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2022 and joined the FIA WEC the following season, finishing third in the Hypercar WEC Championship standings in a year which included 16th and 22nd place overall finishes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
2024 saw the Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s finish 4th and 6th at Le Mans with the team finishing 2nd in the WEC Hypercar standings. Hertz Team JOTA also moved to a two-car WEC entry with the Porsche 963, finishing 8th and 9th at Le Mans in a season which the Tunbridge Wells-based team take the first win by a privateer Hypercar entry at the 6 Hours of Spa in May.
The best result for Porsche Penske Motorsport so far in 2025 was at Circuit of The Americas where Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell brought the #6 Porsche 963 home for its first victory of the season. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, the #6 entry piloted by Estre, Vanthoor and Campbell took the chequered flag in 2nd, just over 14 seconds behind the winning #83 AF Corse Ferrari. Porsche currently sit 2nd in the Hypercar World Endurance Manufacturers Championship, 39 points behind Ferrari, with one round remaining.
With a continued focus on the American market, along with China one of the most important markets for Porsche AG, Vice President Porsche Motorsport Thomas Laudenbach still sees motorsport as a critical element of the marketing mix.
“We use motorsport as a development platform for future technology and to illustrate the potential of our sports cars,” he said. “With the Porsche 963 in the North American IMSA series and the Porsche 99X Electric in the Formula E World Championship, we want to continue to fight for overall victories in the future. That is our tradition and our focus.”
The next round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship takes place in Bahrain on November the 6th to the 8th.
