In most years, Porsche holds the annual Night of Champions in December. Not only does this event celebrate the success of the prior year, but it is also the time when the driver line-ups are announced for the upcoming year. While we knew that there might be some changes in the driver lineups due to the termination of the IMSA GTLM program, I am not sure anyone was expecting the announcement that was made in early December. With the world-wide pandemic putting the brakes on most large gatherings, this year’s Night of Champions was canceled and the driver announcements were made by a press release.
With the IMSA program canceled (for now), the Porsche factory racing efforts are limited to participation in the World Endurance Championship, in the GTE PRO class and in the Formula E series. The diminished factory involvement also brings a reshuffled driver roster.
There were five drivers that were dropped from the factory driver line up. Those drivers are:
Nick Tandy – Nick has signed with the factory Corvette Racing team in IMSA. He will be replacing Oliver Gavin.
Earl Bamber – Earl will remain in IMSA and has joined forces with Team Hardpoint. The new team will compete in the GT Daytona class as Team Hardpoint/EBM with a Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Patrick Pilet – no plans were announced for Patrick’s 2021 season yet. He was scheduled to be part of Tim Pappas’ Black Swan Racing’s 24 Hours of Daytona team, but the entry was withdrawn due to COVID19 issues.
Michael Christensen – no plans announced for 2021.
Sven Muller – no plans announced for 2021, but will participate in the 2021 Daytona 24 hours.
Dirk Werner – no plans announced for 2021.
Some of the existing factory drivers will be competing with new teams this year:
Laurens Vanthoor – will remain in IMSA, joining the PFAFF team in GT Daytona. Pfaff is returning to the series with their plaid Porsche 911 GT3 R after missing most of the 2020 season due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Neel Jani – will be moving from the Porsche factory Formula E team to the WEC GTE Pro lineup for the 2021 season, replacing Michael Christensen.
Patrick Long – has retained his Porsche factory driver role and will continue to race in IMSA GT Daytona with Wright Motorsports in 2021
Despite the Porsche IMSA team ending its program, there will be a Porsche 911 RSR 19 on the IMSA grid this year in the GTLM class. At the last minute, The Weather Tech racing team made a surprise announcement that they will be running a single car for Cooper McNeil for the full season. Cooper will be joined by various drivers from the Porsche WEC team on a race-by-race basis.
Former Formula One driver Pascal Wehrlein has joined the Porsche Formula E team, replacing Neel Jani (who joins the WEC team).
Simona de Silvestro remains with the Porsche factory team as a test and development driver, but will also return the Indy Car series with a planned entry in the Indy 500 in May.