Pascal Zurlinden will stay with Porsche after all – The former head of factory motorsport programmes is going to chassis supplier Multimatic!
You never go all the way: Pascal Zurlinden may have left his post as head of works motorsport at Porsche, but he will remain associated with the German sports car manufacturer. The 39-year-old Frenchman has accepted a post as “Director of Performance Engineering” at Multimatic.
The link to Porsche will thus remain, as the new LMDh bolide will be based on a Multimatic chassis. Zurlinden is also re-establishing contact with Audi, where he has already worked, as their LMDh car will be built on the same platform.
Zurlinden had left the post as head of the works team at Porsche (Formula E and WEC) of his own free will. His role was not completely replaced, but distributed on two shoulders. The Swiss Urs Kuratle has taken over the development of the LMDh bolide, the former Abt technical director Florian Modlinger the management of the Formula E project.
Pascal Zurlinden now joins the US automotive supplier, whose motorsport division traded under the name “Riley” until a few years ago. Larry Holt, head of motorsport at Multimatic, says: “We worked with Pascal [on the launch of the LMDh project] and competed against him. “
“He proved to be both an outstanding partner and a tough opponent when we pitted the Ford GT against the Porsche 911 RSR. He is a top class motorsport engineer with a strong intuitive feel for the right racing decisions and has excellent leadership skills under pressure. As a partner of Porsche, keeping Pascal on board can only help both companies.”
Zurlinden, who worked for Audi from 2008 and Porsche from 2014, added: “Of course I have followed Multimatic’s activities in motorsport and outside of it closely – both as a competitor and as a partner. It’s something very special for me and I’m looking forward to my new job.”
Porsche recently put its LMDh racer through a rollout. The first regular test is due to take place before the end of January.
