Jota, Proton and JDC-Miller: The customer car philosophy with the 963 has worked out as planned, confirms Porsche Motorsport Director Thomas Laudenbach
While the competition is still hesitating, Porsche is already delivering the 963 to its customers in its debut year: Jota competes in the World Endurance Championship (WEC), JDC-Miller in the American IMSA SportsCar Championship and Proton runs a dual program in both series. The philosophy with the customer cars has paid off, confirms Porsche Head of Motorsport Thomas Laudenbach
“The philosophy is not to flood the series with Porsches,” says Laudenbach. “The philosophy is that when we sell a customer car, the question is always: are we in a position to provide the right support?”
“Because it’s not about selling cars,” the Porsche Sport boss is honest. “It’s not about making money. No, that’s not the typical business case approach.” Rather, Porsche wants to offer the teams the best possible support to lead them to success.
“When the car is out there, we want to make sure it runs well, whether it’s about the drivers, whether it’s about our service, no matter how good the team is,” says Laudenbach. “And honestly, I think we can be really happy so far with how the car has performed in the hands of the Proton team at Road Atlanta. “
A few weeks ago, the Proton Porsche finished third at the Petit Le Mans, the first podium finish for an LMDh customer car in IMSA. “So I think we’ve achieved our goal of delivering a car and a package that they can really run up front with. And I think that’s important. “
More cars for the customer teams?
Although there are currently no plans to include new customer teams in the program, Porsche has not committed to a specific number of cars. “There is of course a certain amount of vehicles that we can offer,” says Laudenbach. “But it’s not like we’re saying that’s the number of cars we have.”
“The decision is primarily up to the team,” explains the Porsche Motorsport boss. Jota and Proton want to enter a second car in the WEC next year, while JDC-Miller would like to have a replacement car. “The next decision is whether we see ourselves in a position to offer a corresponding service.”
“There are many things,” says Laudenbach. “It’s not about saying, okay, we have to sell eight customer cars a year or something. I think what we announced at the end of last year is what we see on the track today. “
