How Porsche and Penske are gearing up for sportscar racing's bold new era

By:

Charles Bradley

Jan 5, 2023, 5:03 PM

Porsche and Penske have teamed up to tackle the world's biggest sportscar races in 2023 with the new 963 LMDh car. Autosport was on hand at the recent Daytona test to hear from key players in the partnership as it prepares for dual campaigns across the IMSA SportsCar Championship and World Endurance Championship...

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Later this month, Porsche returns to top-level prototype racing in the Daytona 24 Hours. It’s not even six years since it last won the Le Mans 24 Hours for a record 19th time, although Toyota’s dominance since then makes it feel longer, and Porsche’s all-new 963 is a very different animal from the 919 Hybrid that went before.

Despite the 919’s technical prowess and impressive success – three FIA World Endurance Championship titles and a trio of Le Mans triumphs in just four seasons – what it couldn’t boast was longevity. Here’s where 963 should win big; in many ways it’s more of a successor to the iconic 962 of the 1980s: it has been designed with the long haul in mind.

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Charles Bradley is Motorsport.com’s Global Editor in Chief. After spending five years in the aerospace industry in his native North Wales, while working weekends as a freelance writer at racetracks around the UK, Charles joined the staff of Motoring News in the heart of London. He transferred to the nascent Autosport.com team in 2000 before transitioning to the magazine, becoming its Editor between 2011 and 2014. Charles then upped sticks to work in America, as Motorsport.com’s Editor in Chief, where he created the multi-national and multi-lingual editorial team that quickly became the world’s most-read motorsport website. He was instrumental in delivering three of the biggest Global F1 Fan Surveys in sports history and is also a multiple award-winning scriptwriter. Charles is an overseas member of the Guild of Motoring Writers and lives in Miami Beach with his wife Helen – and a cat that’s named after Serbia’s top football club.