PORSCHE TEAM MANTHEY (DEU)

Director: Hartmut Kristen
Team Manager: Olaf Manthey
Base : Meuspath (DEU)
www.manthey-racing.de

2015 FIA WEC results
Silverstone 6 Hours: 10th Christensen/Lietz (DAN/ALL), no. 91 Porsche 911 RSR (2nd LM GTE Pro); 15th Makowiecki/Pilet (FRA/FRA), no. 92 Porsche 911 RSR (7th LM GTE Pro);
Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours: 15th Makowiecki/Lietz (FRA/AUT), no. 92 Porsche 911 RSR (2nd LM GTE Pro),18th. Estre/Müller (FRA/ALL) no. 91 Porsche 911 RSR (3rd LM GTE Pro)

     Porsche’s name is indelibly linked to endurance racing in general and the Le Mans 24 Hours in particular in which it has competed since 1951. It holds the record for the number of outright victories in the Sarthe with sixteen between 1970 and 1998 counting the Dauer 962 and the TWR/Joests. It has also scored countless class and group wins (98 before the 2013 race) as well as successes in the Indexes, holds the record for the highest number of cars at the start and the outright distance record set in 1971 (5335 km by the Marko-van Lennep Porsche 917), unbeaten until 2010. Works cars were absent between 1989 and 1992, and the factory came back in 1993 and 1994 under the name ‘Le Mans Porsche Team.’ It gave 1995 a miss and made a stunning return in 1996 as both GT1s finished in the top 3 and dominated their category.

     In 1997, an evolved version of the 911 GT1 driven by Dalmas-Kelleners-Collard exerted a stranglehold on the race until its engine went up in flames two hours before the finish when they looked on course for victory. However, Porsche’s disappointment was attenuated by the win by the TWR-derived prototype entered by Joest Racing. In 1998, Porsche celebrated its 50th anniversary, but unfortunately Ferry Porsche, the make’s founder, died on 27th March aged 88, which provided two good reasons to win the Le Mans 24 hours. To achieve this aim Porsche built a completely new GT1 with a carbon fibre monocoque. It also took over the Joest Racing effort and entered the two TWR prototypes in which the 911 engine/gearbox ensemble replaced the one based on the 962, under the name of Porsche AG. Its efforts paid off and the 911 GT1 driven by McNish-Ortelli-Aiëllo took the chequered flag in first place giving the German make its last outright victory to date in the Sarthe.
Porsche then withdrew officially from Le Mans leaving it up to privateers and satellite teams to defend its name. The make continued to reap success with the line of 911s and the LM P2s thanks to the fantastic spyder. In the past few years, some teams like Felbermeyr Proton, responsible for running the make’s 911 RSRs in the Le Mans Series, the ILMC and the FIA WEC, have enjoyed semi-works status with official Porsche drivers in their cars.

 

     

     In July 2010 Porsche announced its LM P1 comeback in 2014. Before battling for victory in the overall classification the Stuttgart make decided to run its 911, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2013, in house. The 2013 version of the 911 RSR still based on the Porsche 911 (the 991 to be exact) was completely new with an extended wheelbase, redesigned front suspension, a lighter gearbox and improved weight distribution. Its drivers were handpicked from among Porsche’s best including Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and Marc Lieb who today are at the wheel of the 919 Hybrid. Last year they were in the 911 RSRs in the Sarthe and in the FIA WEC. Olaf Manthey, the make’s right-hand man in racing for around 15 years, was entrusted with running the cars. He set up his team in 1996 and met with great success including five wins in the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Porsche was so pleased that during the winter it incorporated Manthey’s squad into the works factory programme: it was renamed Porsche Team Manthey and continued its involvement in the LM GTE Pro category in the medium term. In the opening rounds of the 2013 WEC the 911 RSRs were never in a position to fight for victory. However, the two cars that arrived at Le Mans had undergone considerable modifications putting them on a par with Ferrari, Aston Martin and Corvette in terms of performance. The result was a superb double in changeable weather conditions ideally suited to a 911 provided the driver knew how to handle it. The cars didn’t meet with the same success over the remainder of the season. In fact, for the final round of the WEC organised by the ACO in Bahrain Porsche had a new version of the 911 RSR homologated and the 2013bis 911 proved much more competitive against the Ferraris on a dry track as proved by Bergmeister/Pillet’s second and Lieb/Lietz’s fourth places. It was an immediate reward for the Porsche engineers.

     The 911 RSR run by the Porsche North America team kicked off the 2014 season in style by winning the LM GT category in the Daytona 24 Hours and the Sebring 12 Hours in the Tudor United SportsCar Championship.

     Porsche Team Manthey also made a great start to 2014 in its second season in the FIA WEC with victory at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, interrupted 30 minutes before the end because of a rain storm. At Le Mans, Marco Holzer and Nick Tandy, who had been with Porsche for several years, filled the places left vacant by the drivers enrolled in the LM P1 programme, as well as Frenchman Fred Makowiecki, Hartmut Kristen’s latest recruit. The Porsche GT Competitions boss was hoping to repeat the winning performance of 2013 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, but Ferrari and Corvette dashed the German make’s hopes. Despite a difficult end to the year, Porsche finished second overall in the GTE Pro Championship. For the 2015 season the 911 RSR was again tweaked to improve weight distribution and refine the aerodynamics in braking zones, the aim of which was to achieve greater consistency in the stints rather than finding more out-and-out speed.

     Ahead of Le Mans, Porsche appeared to be moving in the right direction. At Silverstone, #92 driven by Makowiecki and PIlet could have topped the GTE Pro class if a shock absorber hadn’t failed when they were running second. At Spa, the 911s overcame a difficult qualifying session to score second and third places in the race despite three drive-through penalties (one for #91 and two for #92).  The works Porsches racing in the TUSCC in the United States had been among the frontrunners in the first four events of the season without managing to clinch victory. The first class win of the 2015 campaign was not to come at Le Mans either. In the first hour of the race, the #92 911 RSR’s engine failed as a result of an oil leak and caught fire. After a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, Patrick Pilet emerged unharmed from the thick smoke. Like Corvette, Porsche now had just one car to defend its colours. The #91 was well placed for a podium finish in the class, but was twice forced into the pits to repair a faulty shock absorber. The 30 minutes lost proved to be far too costly in such a hotly disputed class. Lietz/Christensen/Bergmeister eventually crossed the finish line in fifth place.

     The world and American titles seemed a long way off to most observers, but not to Nick Tandy, outright winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Porsche 919 Hybrid. The Englishman teamed up with Pilet in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and recorded three consecutive wins in GTLM (Mosport, Road America and Virginia). Although the duo had to make do with third place at the Circuit of the Americas, they pulled off a minor miracle at Petit Le Mans, clinching outright victory ahead of the prototypes in atrocious weather conditions. They had started the race from the pits too, after post-qualifier checks had detected a ride height infraction. Pilet took the Drivers’ crown (Tandy having missed a number of rounds) and Porsche the Manufacturers’ and Teams’ titles in a clean sweep that was to be repeated in the FIA WEC the following month.

     After the disappointment of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Porsche found new hope with the one-two finishes by Lietz/Christensen and Pilet/Makowiecki at Nürburgring and the Circuit of the Americas. At the 6 Hours of Fuji, the Porsche squad had to settle for second and fourth places due to an extra pit stop compared with the Ferraris to fit more suitable tyres. This proved to be just a minor setback as the Austrian/Danish pairing returned to the top of the LM GTE Pro podium in Shanghai, with the French duo following suit in Bahrain. Lietz’s fifth place was enough to see the Austrian take the FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers (Christensen having missed the Belgian round), whereas Porsche scooped the FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Manufacturers and the FIA Endurance Trophy for LM GTE Pro Teams. Porsche could not have hoped for more.

     And yet the German constructor has decided against entering works cars in 2016, while Olaf Manthey wants to take time out and concentrate on the VLN championship in Germany. Dempsey-Proton Racing will therefore be flying the Porsche flag in FIA WEC for this new endurance season while Porsche turns its focus to developing the replacement of the 911 RSR to comply with the new technical regulations that came into force at the beginning of the year. The shakedown of the new car has already been carried out but we shall have to wait until 2017 to see it in competition. In the meantime, the Weissach-based constructor will enter two works 911s in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Six drivers will therefore be called up specially for the race. The Pilet/Tandy partnership that was so successful at Petit Le Mans in 2015 will be reformed, with Kévin Estre, the recent Porsche Carrera Cup winner in France and Germany, joining the team. The sister car will be entrusted to Jörg Bergmeister, who already has a Le Mans class win to his name, Frédéric Makowiecki and Earl Bamber, who teamed up in LM P1 with Tandy and Nico Hülkenberg to take overall victory in 2015. Two formidable line-ups that will go all out to reclaim a trophy that has escaped Porsche since 2013.

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