Porsche Penske leadership speaks out on IMSA performance struggles

Porsche Penske Motorsport (PPM) leadership voiced strong frustrations over ongoing performance deficits during a media call on Thursday, targeting how the severe adjustments have hampered their campaign following a dominant start to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

After sweeping the opening two endurance rounds at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, PPM was hit with heavy Balance of Performance (BoP) mandates, pushing the Porsche 963 past the 1,100-kilogram mark for the first time in GTP/Hypercar history. Although the BoP evolves for each race weekend, the team has since scored just a single podium at Long Beach and currently suffers a four-race podium drought for both the and entries.

The pressure came to a head in the most recent GTP-headlined round at Road America, where Kevin Estre, piloting the Porsche 963, collided with championship leader Jack Aitken’s Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R on the final restart while battling for second place. Both crashed out, and race officials placed Estre on probation for the remainder of the season.

In a strategic bid to salvage their title hopes ahead of the Sept. 20 Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, PPM has restructured its driver lineup. Laurin Heinrich – currently the highest-ranked Porsche driver, sitting 118 points behind Aitken – will replace Laurens Vanthoor in the car to partner with Estre for the round. Heinrich will return to the entry for the season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. 

Addressing the team’s drop in momentum ahead of the Indianapolis sprint round, Porsche Motorsport Vice President Thomas Laudenbach emphasized the need for clearer consistency from the sanctioning body.

“Yes, compared to the last two years, I think, but we won everything we could win, so we might call it struggling,” Laudenbach said. “Yes, we are definitely not in the position where we have been last year.

“Before I give you an answer, I’d like to point out that we very much respect and appreciate the work that IMSA is doing in providing such a competitive platform. We know it’s not an easy thing to do. I guess at the same time, I would say it’s important and I strongly believe that it is important that for the fans, for us as a team and as a manufacturer, let’s say there is a transparent, consistent, and predictable platform. We are racing, and if I look at the 2026 season, I would say this has not been the case all the time. And I would also say there is room for improvement. So altogether, this needs to be better. We are not 100% satisfied.

“At the same time, we all know the world is not perfect. So, it’s important that we continue to, to stay in a very constructive dialogue within them, in order to get things where we all want them to be. And to come back, really, to have a competitive platform, exciting racing, and level playing field. But the core point is we have to work on that together with the sanctioning body.” 

Thomas Laudenbach, Porsche Motorsport

Echoing Laudenbach’s sentiment, Team Penske President Jonathan Diuguid pointed specifically to a prolonged drought in single-lap speed, noting that the Porsche 963 has not secured a pole position in IMSA since the Detroit round in May 2024 courtesy of Nick Tandy.

“The team continues to operate at a pretty high level on the racetrack, but we have been lacking for some performance,” Diuguid said. “You know from the engineering side, both Thomas and I are engineers, and we’re involved in racing because we like to go fast. But the facts are that the 963 hasn’t had a pole since the second or third race in 2024. So, we’re going on a little over two years where we’ve not been able to display qualifying performance better than our competitors.

“So, we’ve kind of focused on what we can control, and that’s race execution, and we’ve executed these races that are very high level. The reliability of the 963 has been fantastic. I think that’s shown in Daytona, Sebring, and, you know, our performances there. But when it comes down to the sprint races, we are lacking a little bit of pace, and everybody on the team has been working extremely hard, and I think we saw that, when, when we get it right and everything goes correctly, we can fight for wins and podium positions, and that’s been our goal, and that’s kind of what we’re focusing on towards the end of the season here.”

#7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer

Porsche Penske Motorsport pulled out of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) due to a combination of factors, including financial reallocation – that aided the Formula E program – and believed frustrations over competitiveness related to BoP, which WEC stopped publishing figures publicly earlier this year.

When asked by Motorsport.com whether these mounting IMSA frustrations mirror the factors that led to Porsche Penske Motorsport’s departure from the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), Laudenbach rejected any comparison between the two series.

“No, I don’t want to compare this,” Laudenbach said. “It’s a different situation. It’s different how it is handled. I wouldn’t like to compare it to WEC. We handle IMSA separately, and if you ask me, are we happy with everything we have there? No, we don’t. But, again, we have regular talks with IMSA, and, as I said, we also see if you try to get in their shoes. They try to do a good job, they try to provide what we want to have, is the outcome always what we want, or probably even IMSA wants? I don’t think so, but it’s not easy, but it’s a complete separate thing to what we have seen WEC to me.

“It’s also a different situation. It’s a different situation from the cars which are also competing. Would I like to be in a position to win races again, yes.” 
Read Also:

IMSA confirms 44-car field for Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis

Laurin Heinrich replaces Laurens Vanthoor at Porsche Penske for IMSA Indy round
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