At its traditional Night of Champions in Stuttgart, Porsche presented an overview of its 2026 motorsports activities, along with its roster of works and contracted drivers for the upcoming season.
This includes confirmation from Porsche that the manufacturer will participate in the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship, at least in the LMGT3 category, with the newest evolution of the Porsche 911 GT3 R. WEC will be one of several high-profile GT series that the new 992.2-generation GT3 R participates in, including the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, GT World Challenge and DTM.
However, Saturday night’s ceremony and press release issued by Porsche did not mention any customer support for the 963 prototype in the WEC’s Hypercar class, with only a few days until the 2026 entry list is due to be published.
Porsche’s factory racing efforts for 2026 will consist of its factory-run Porsche Formula E Team, as well as customer teams Andretti Formula E and Cupra Kiro each using Porsche powertrains. As announced in October, Nico Müller joins Pascal Wehrlein in the factory program for the 2025-26 season – the final year of the Formula E Gen3 Evo regulations, which begins next week in São Paulo.
In IMSA, Porsche Penske Motorsport announced its drivers for the upcoming season earlier this week, headlined by the addition of former WEC drivers Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Julien Andlauer as full-time GTP drivers.
Also added to the Porsche Penske roster was 2024 IMSA GTD PRO champion Laurin Heinrich, now promoted to full-fledged Porsche works driver status for 2026, as has reigning DTM champion Ayhancan Güven of Turkey.
Güven and Heinrich replace outgoing Porsche works drivers António Félix da Costa and Mathieu Jaminet, who’ve already begun new assignments at Alpine and Genesis, respectively. Another significant omission from the list of 2026 Porsche works drivers is Romain Dumas, marking the end of a 22-year run as a Porsche factory driver.
Along with the 13 Porsche works drivers are 17 Porsche contracted drivers who will represent the brand. New additions announced Saturday are 2025 Porsche Junior Alessandro Ghiretti, Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific (PMAP) Dorian Boccolacci and newly added AO Racing driver Harry King.
Patrick Pilet, meanwhile, is the longest-tenured of a handful of official drivers from last season that are no longer with Porsche, a list that also includes Patric Niederhauser, Lars Kern and Jaxon Evans.
Marcus Amand of Finland and Flynt Schuring of the Netherlands have been selected as the 2026 Porsche Junior drivers, after a 12-driver shootout which took place two weeks ago.
Amand, the reigning Porsche Carrera Cup France champion, and Schuring, a race winner in Porsche Carrera Cup Germany this season, will each receive a €120,000 scholarship and a comprehensive driver training program next season as they race in Porsche Supercup, plus a national-level Porsche Carrera Cup series.
Porsche Motorsport North America-selected driver Loek Hartog was crowned the winner of the 56th annual Porsche Cup, the prize given to the top private Porsche driver of the past season.
Hartog, who won the 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup North America Championship, took class victories in GT World Challenge Europe and the Intercontinental GT Challenge, finished on the podium at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring and made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut. As his reward, Hartog received a prize of €150,000.
The new 911 GT3 R is set to debut worldwide come Daytona in January. Porsche Motorsport photo
In addition to the newest evolution of the 911 GT3 R, Porsche’s customer racing efforts include the launch of the new 911 Cup in several one-make series including the Porsche Supercup and the Carrera Cups of North America, Germany and Asia Pacific, as well as the relaunch of the Carrera World Cup, which is scheduled for March 5–8 at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
“Porsche and motorsport – they are inextricably linked. With the Cup version of the 911, we are building one of the most successful and best-selling customer racing cars worldwide. The recently unveiled new model will compete in the Supercup and Carrera Cups in Germany, the USA and Asia Pacific in 2026,” said Dr Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Research and Development at Porsche AG. “We have been promoting young talent for decades. This autumn, we held another junior talent search which produced two new talents for 2026.
“We remain committed to endurance racing – in IMSA with the Porsche 963, in the WEC in the LMGT3 class, and we are intensifying our commitment to Formula E, where the 2026-27 season will see the premiere of the GEN4 race cars with greater freedom for manufacturers.
“We learn in motorsport in a highly competitive environment, which also helps us on the road. The interaction between motorsport and series development here in Weissach makes our sports cars unique and fit for the future.”
“The 2025 motorsport year was once again an extremely successful one for Porsche. The titles in the Formula E World Championship and the IMSA series are impressive proof of this,” said Thomas Laudenbach, Head of Porsche Motorsport. “Second place at Le Mans, just 14 seconds behind – that hurts, no doubt about it. The fact that we were also able to fight for the world championship in the WEC in the end was made possible by tremendous teamwork. We have achieved significant success in customer racing – another class victory at Le Mans, all GT titles in the WEC, DTM victory and only narrowly missed successes in the big 24-hour races at the Nürburgring and Spa.
“Now we have repositioned ourselves and are starting afresh – in Formula E as early as next weekend, and at the end of January in Daytona. The 2026 season will be more exciting than almost any other before.”