Porsche driver Michael Christensen stated he want 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 lessons of WEC and IMSA respectively.
These might embody potential driver swaps between the 2 collection, just like how Dane Cameron and Matt Campbell switched positions forward of 2024.
There additionally stays a risk 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 doable shuffle in drivers, together with rumours that Christensen might 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 the earth 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 the explanation why staying put is extra engaging to him than returning to the collection the place he spent a single season racing the Porsche 911 RSR within the GTLM class a decade in the past.
“My choice has at all times been WEC, I actually like that [series],” the Dane informed 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 assume IMSA is cool as effectively, 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 workforce and the way in which pitstops are completed, all this stuff are extra acquainted [to me].
“On prime of it, and possibly a very powerful [thing] is that you’ve the safety to do Le Mans. You’re working with the [same] workforce in Le Mans that you’re racing with [in all other] all races as effectively. So, in fact, that’s why I choose to do WEC.
“Talking about subsequent 12 months, there was no communication actually between us, or me at the least and Porsche. Up to now 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 concept.”
Christensen and his team-mates within the #5 Porsche, Campbell and Frederic Makowiecki, at present 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 swap to a 90° crankshaft from a 180°, was deserted after it was capable of get by 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 a detailed in November and October respectively.
Christensen stated there are nonetheless some areas the place Porsche can enhance the 963, highlighting a straightline pace 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 at all times issues to replace, there are at all times issues to enhance and we additionally noticed that early within the venture and nonetheless have some issues which aren’t solved and which may’t be solved with set-up,” he defined.
“So for positive we’ve got some issues that I imagine we should always deal with to attempt to enhance. Whether or not that is doable or not by way of laws, I do not know. That is the administration who is aware of that.
“However for positive we’ve got issues to enhance and this you possibly can say want extra for, Le Mans prime pace for instance.
“I can not inform why we aren’t ok there, however we lack quite a bit [of stop speed].
“And whenever you take a look at the information from Le Mans, in fact it is only one race however it’s the most important race and with quite a lot 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 doable to alter. There may be at all times one thing to enhance.”
