Porsche driver Michael Christensen stated he wish to stay within the World Championship subsequent 12 months regardless of hypothesis linking him with a transfer to the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
Porsche revealed final month that it might be making modifications to its manufacturing facility crews for its third season with the 963 LMDh within the Hypercar and GTP courses of WEC and IMSA respectively.
These might embody potential driver swaps between the 2 sequence, just like how Dane Cameron and Matt Campbell switched positions forward of 2024.
There additionally stays a chance of Porsche downsizing its WEC line-ups to run two drivers in every automobile for the six-hour races that make up half of subsequent 12 months’s eight-round calendar.
Amid a potential shuffle in drivers, together with rumours that Christensen could possibly be moved to IMSA, the Le Mans 24 Hours class winner has stated he would like to stay within the WEC in 2025 for what could be his tenth straight 12 months on this planet championship.
He defined that familiarity with the WEC aspect of the Porsche Penske Motorsport operation, in addition to having an automated entry to Le Mans, had been key explanation why staying put is extra attractive to him than returning to the sequence the place he spent a single season racing the Porsche 911 RSR within the GTLM class a decade in the past.
“My desire has all the time been WEC, I actually like that [series],” the Dane instructed Motorsport.com.
“I did race in IMSA in 2014, my first 12 months of the manufacturing facility driver contract and I preferred it. I actually suppose IMSA is cool as properly, however I felt extra at residence in WEC.
Christensen raced in IMSA in the course of the 2014 season
Photograph by: Richard Dole
“The best way the championship is constructed up, it’s [based] in Europe, the race tracks, the crew and the best way pitstops are executed, all these items are extra acquainted [to me].
“On prime of it, and doubtless a very powerful [thing] is that you’ve got the safety to do Le Mans. You’re working with the [same] crew in Le Mans that you’re racing with [in all other] all races as properly. So, after all, that’s why I choose to do WEC.
“Talking about subsequent 12 months, there was no communication actually between us, or me at the very least and Porsche. To this point they haven’t communicated something.
“The one factor I do know is the rumours that are across the paddock, however whether or not that’s true or not, no thought.”
Christensen and his team-mates within the #5 Porsche, Campbell and Frederic Makowiecki, presently sit fifth within the drivers’ standings heading to the Bahrain finale in November.
The championship is led by the sister Porsche crewed by Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer, with the trio holding a 35-point lead with solely 39 up for grabs within the bonus-points decider.
Porsche is but to announce when it might be invoking first of the 5 evo jokers allowed to it beneath the unique five-year rule cycle of the 963 LMDh.
A deliberate improve of its hybrid engine, which centred on a change to a 90° crankshaft from a 180°, was deserted after it was capable of get via this 12 months’s Le Mans with none main reliability points.
#5 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen, Frederic Makowiecki
Photograph by: Alexander Trienitz
The German producer heads the standings in each the WEC and IMSA, as their respective seasons draw to an in depth in November and October respectively.
Christensen stated there are nonetheless some areas the place Porsche can enhance the 963, highlighting a straightline velocity deficit at Circuit de la Sarthe that contributed to it ending exterior the rostrum within the WEC’s centrepiece occasion this 12 months.
“There are all the time issues to replace, there are all the time issues to enhance and we additionally noticed that early within the undertaking and nonetheless have some issues which aren’t solved and which may’t be solved with set-up,” he defined.
“So for positive now we have some issues that I consider we must always deal with to attempt to enhance. Whether or not that is potential or not by way of laws, I do not know. That is the administration who is aware of that.
“However for positive now we have issues to enhance and this you possibly can say want extra for, Le Mans prime velocity for instance.
“I am unable to inform why we’re not ok there, however we lack quite a bit [of stop speed].
“And once you have a look at the info from Le Mans, after all it is only one race nevertheless it’s the largest race and with a number of factors, in order that and a few [other] mechanical stuff for element.
“A couple of issues we must be centered on. I am unsure whether it is potential to alter. There’s all the time one thing to enhance.”
