Insight: How Porsche Penske's One-Team Approach is Paying Dividends

John Dagys explores the recent string of success from sports car racing's newest powerhouse squad...

Porsche Penske Motorsport has been on a roll as of late, with the second-year LMDh operation so far undefeated this season in international sports car racing competition heading into next weekend’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

From its breakthrough victory in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona to the team’s first win in the FIA World Endurance Championship last weekend in Qatar, as part of a landmark race for Porsche, no other team holds the momentum that Porsche Penske currently has in the endurance racing world.

It’s come after arguably a challenging first year of the program, highlighted by a challenging outing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a race both Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach and Roger Penske saw as a turning point that led to a reset of sorts within the organization.

While improvements were seen in the second half of last year, including three wins in the WeatherTech Championship, a bolstering of staff in both series during the off-season and a revised approach have paid the biggest dividends, as witnessed in the first races this season.

"I've been asked very often last year, 'Did you make the right choice the way you went, was it correct to do it with one partner?'“ says Laudenbach. “For sure we didn't make our lives easy. With everything coming together and building up Mannheim, [doing] everything from scratch, new car and customer cars at the same time.

"I think it's fair to say that the challenge for us was the biggest one in the entire field. For sure we paid some price. But on the other side, I think it shows that the decision that we made and the partnering we did was a long-term decision and probably it doesn't pay out in the way you wanted in the first year. 

"But we were not only thinking one year. We were thinking further ahead and hopefully now it starts to pay off and it clearly shows that we made the right decisions in the way we went, with all the different aspects.

“No matter if it's joining with Roger's organization, doing it as a global approach… That was a long-term decision and we will follow that one and I really hope that this year we can start to harvest."

Penske, for his part, echoes Laudenbach’s sentiments about the rough start to the program, despite having been the first team with a LMDh car on track in early 2022.

"I wouldn't say it was well-gelled,” recalls Penske. “It was just a brand-new facility, brand-new people and equipment. Really, we were stuttering because we didn't have the components we needed. I remember going to some tracks [testing] and we'd go sit there for three days and run five hours [in total].

"That's a whole different routine today. When we go, we really have an engineering process that the team has put together and we can get data that can be used both in IMSA and WEC. We're a year later and have made a big difference."

Led by managing director Jonathan Diuguid, competition director Travis Law, as well as Porsche’s LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle, Porsche Penske added a number of key hires in both series programs over the winter to not only strengthen its engineering team but also the leadership.

That, along with a single-team approach, has been the biggest benefit to date.

"I think the competitive advantage we have right now is that we're one organization,” Penske says. “A year ago we were building Mannheim. We were having to hire people, trying to come together with a new product, which was highly technical. We were relying on common parts coming from outside vendors which we had no ability to change.

"The focus was reliability and to see four Porsches running [at Daytona] at the very end of 24 hours was pretty amazing. You need one to be running up front, which obviously we were able to do. 

"Jan Lange (ex-Joest Racing) has come on board now to be our managing director of the [WEC] team in Mannheim, which has been great. It's been a big step. Travis Law and certainly Jonathan Diuguid, who have been in the program, and Stefan Moser who is a very senior guy technically in Weissach, one of Thomas' key guys, has joined us to help us push the technical side. 

"It's been a team effort. It's one company now, which bringing two organizations together and building a new one. The DNA is certainly very positive in the people that we have, we've added lots of capability and the continuity with Thomas' team in Weissach, we can rely on them for so many things plus we can do things."

Penske pointed out the various benefits of having parallel WEC and WeatherTech Championship programs.

“We're working on reliability in the U.S., it's reliability for WEC at the same time and vice-versa,” he says. “Whether it's wind tunnel work, the simulation that we're doing, just things that technically on the car that we've had to understand, it's been amazing to see the outcome now.

"We're understanding completely that it's a hell of a competitive field here [in WEC]. We just want to be able to compete at the highest level."

While victory at Sebring is on next on the team’s agenda, a large amount of focus has already been placed on Le Mans, with the team set to again field three Porsche 963s in the French endurance classic.

Given its early season success, anything less than a win could be considered a disappointment to both Laudenbach and Penske.

"For sure there is a focus on Le Mans this year,” says Laudenbach. “It's no question, it's not a secret. We want to win races. If we have a choice and if we have one free, of course you choose Le Mans, no question. Especially because we were struggling last year, and I'm talking about the Le Mans race event. 

"For sure we want to show everybody that we know how to do it. Therefore, Daytona was encouraging. It was a 24-hour race. That doesn't mean that everything is sorted. But it clearly shows. I can talk a lot about our progress but the best way is to show it on the track and that's what we did in Daytona.

"We still have to do our work, we still have to be focused and then hopefully we'll come into a position to show it.”

Photos: Porsche