As with any manufacturer motor sport program, change has to be expected. That has certainly been the case with Porsche Penske Motorsport.
Ahead of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the team has reshuffled its driver lineup from last year’s race and has also dropped out of the World Endurance Championship. It will instead focus on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Formula E.
“Every year, everybody looks at what’s best for the team and drivers moving forward,” said Travis Law, Porsche Penske Motorsport competition director, in an interview this month.
“We’re quite fortunate to have had the W.E.C. program in the past, and the IMSA program, and more drivers than just competing in IMSA alone. We looked at it as a collective group, what’s best for the team and how everybody works together.”
The team finished first and third in Daytona last year. Felipe Nasr, who won the event with Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor, has new teammates in Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich in the No. 7 car. Andlauer competed in the W.E.C. last year with Porsche Penske; Heinrich in IMSA with AO Racing. He won the GTD Pro class title with AO in 2024.
Matt Campbell teamed up with Mathieu Jaminet and Kévin Estre in finishing third. Campbell and Jaminet went on to become IMSA champions in the GTP class. After a decade with Porsche, Jaminet left the team at the end of last season, making what he said was “the hardest decision of my life.” He will drive for Genesis this year in its debut W.E.C. season.
Estre will remain with Campbell, and Vanthoor moves over to partner with them in the No. 6 car, but Campbell will not defend his IMSA title. Along with Daytona, he will drive in the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, which are also part of the IMSA calendar.
“When you come off the back of a championship, you’d always love to defend your title,” Campbell said in an interview this month. “But in the modern day of sports car and endurance racing, there’s so much going on around the world, it’s not always possible.
“Nevertheless, I’ll still be in the IMSA paddock, and that’s the main thing. For me, it’s one of the best championships in the world.”
Campbell said he would miss Jaminet. They teamed up in 2022 to win the IMSA GTD Pro class with Pfaff Motorsports before joining again for last year’s victory.
“We’ve not only been really good teammates over the years, but we’ve also had a really good relationship off track,” Campbell said. “We’ve formed a really close partnership and had a lot of fun over the years, a lot of success. I was very lucky and fortunate to have such a good teammate as Mathieu. There are a lot of good, fond memories.”
Estre and Vanthoor, teammates in the W.E.C. last year who missed out on victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans by 14 seconds in partnership with Campbell, will pilot the No. 6 car through the IMSA campaign.
Campbell is ready to play a supporting role this season. “The first year with Kévin and Laurens was only last year when I joined them for the W.E.C. season,” he said. “Luckily, we had a good relationship then, and it’ll be easy for me to be back with them this year.”
Law said there were different factors that came into play when choosing driver lineups, particularly for an event like Daytona.
“Car setup across drivers can be very different,” he said. “What one driver may need compared to another isn’t always the same. Anytime we can pair driving styles together, it makes it easier on the race engineers. Having some consistency across that definitely helps. They can focus.”
Campbell said the biggest challenge was staying out of trouble for 22 hours at Daytona and “making sure you have absolutely no contact, and leaving the car in perfect condition for those last two hours when you need to use it.”
“That’s one of the biggest aspects,” he continued, adding, “In endurance racing, you just need to be smart and hopefully be there at the end, and then anything’s possible.”
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