Insight: Behind the Scenes at Porsche Penske's European HQ

Sportscar365 gets an inside look at Porsche Penske Motorsport’s base of operations in Mannheim, Germany…

If you didn’t know where to look, you’d almost miss it. And you’d be forgiven for that because the location doesn’t exactly stand out. An unassuming industrial estate, undoubtedly like one of thousands all across Germany. Even turning into the street in question, you’d still have no idea. To the left, the logistics hub for a transport company. To the right, gray steel fencing obscuring the view of what sits behind. And then, suddenly, an opening in the fencing. A gate. And on the facade of the building behind it, three words: Porsche Penske Motorsport.

Welcome to the Mannheim headquarters of endurance sports car racing’s newest powerhouse stable. From this location, found roughly halfway between Stuttgart and Frankfurt, Porsche’s FIA World Endurance Championship factory Hypercar operations are run and last week, Sportscar365 got a behind-the-scenes look and tour at the goings-on at the Hypercar class’ most recent race winners.

Walk through the door and you immediately realize that Porsche treats this facility with enormous gravity. The first thing we saw upon entry was the Porsche 919 Evo that set the Nordschleife lap record in the hands of Timo Bernhard in 2018. 

Alongside it, the 919 Hybrid that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber and Nico Hulkenberg in 2015. These two hybrid spaceships were accompanied by a RS Spyder from the American Le Mans Series and a 962C Group C car. In the middle of the foyer sat a 963 show car, decked out on last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans livery.

At first glance, the choice to locate the Porsche Penske headquarters in Mannheim may seem a little odd. Porsche’s motorsport test facility in Weissach is more than one-hundred kilometers (70 miles) away. Its corporate headquarters in Stuttgart is even further up the road. So why here? Why not closer to home?

When Porsche and Penske came together to run its joint WEC-IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship effort with the 963 LMDh car, building a new facility for the European operation proved difficult because of building restrictions in the area. Instead, the decision fell on finding an existing facility that could be appropriately upgraded to suit the new purpose. 

As it turns out, that facility was already sitting right under Porsche and Penske’s nose. The Mannheim headquarters that now houses the WEC operation started out in life as a Porsche dealership until it was sold to Penske Automotive in 2008. It continued to operate in the same fashion for nearly a decade, until the Mannheim Porsche dealership was moved to a new building just a few minutes up the road. 

So when the Porsche LMDh program was born in 2020 and a base of operations needed to be found, a decision was quickly made to convert this facility in what Porsche figures described as a “multi-million dollar project.”

The traces of the building’s old life are still very much present. The welcoming foyer, while it now houses some of the most iconic racing cars in Porsche history, still looks like a place where the latest versions of Porsche road cars once sat. The lineup of cars at reception also rotates through a partnership with the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, with different cars being brought in every few months. 

Up the stairs, the glass offices for leadership figures like managing director Jonathan Diuguid and LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle still look like the sales offices where many deals for 911s were undoubtedly made through the years. Even further upstairs, the area that once housed the used car department has been completely redesigned and now houses engineering offices, an operations room and an in-house gym.

Yes, a gym. It’s just a glimmer into how seriously Porsche and Penske take things when it comes to crew readiness. Because the fitness equipment in that room is not just for drivers, but also for the pit crew.

These staff members are put through a rigorous routine workout and training regiment to prepare them for races. It’s a set schedule: physical training on Tuesday and Thursday, pitstop practice in the mock pit lane downstairs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It’s all par for the course for Porsche Penske’s race preparations and one of the benefits of having the Mannheim facility up and running, as Kuratle points out.

“The pitstop practice for sure is a big one, but I think an even bigger one is to have the complete team, the engineers, the mechanics, everybody involved here and also for the drivers a possibility to come together and be at one place,” Kuratle says.

“At home, also coming back from a race. It’s a space to prepare the cars and also to discuss processes and things like this. 

“These days, home offices are a big thing. People are working in remote areas and I think we last year found the boundaries where it’s very important to have the engineers here, to talk to the mechanics, drivers and to everybody in person and not via a screen. 

“These are good technologies that we are also using in certain places, but it’s very important to have the people present here and grow together as a team. 

“The biggest benefit is to create the team. Imagine, where you work, if you don’t have an office where you go back and you only live out of hotel rooms or something, it’s not the same. That’s basically the same for a racing team as well.”

Meanwhile, down in the workshop, staff were busy preparing the pair of 963 race chassis for their trip to Imola where Porsche will defend its early championship lead in the Hypercar class. It’s often said that to be prepared is half the victory.

If this glimpse behind the scenes gave us any indication, Porsche Penske Motorsport is already halfway there.

Photos: Gruppe C Photography/Porsche