Porsche has announced that it is ending its hugely successful LMP1 endurance racing team after just four years and switching to Formula E.
The German car manufacturer follows Audi who made the same move last year. It will walk away from the top class of the World Endurance Championship at the end of the 2017 season before entering the all-electric race series in the 2019/20 season.
The move is motivated by the company’s increasing focus on building fully electric sports cars, such as the Mission E project first revealed at the Frankfurt motor show in 2015.
Michael Steiner, member of the executive board for research and development at Porsche, said: “Porsche is working with alternative, innovative drive concepts.
“For us, Formula E is the ultimate competitive environment for driving forward the development of high-performance vehicles in areas such as environmental friendliness, efficiency and sustainability.”
However, unlike Audi, Porsche isn’t turning its back on the World Endurance Championship completely, instead saying it will be “increasing its commitment in the GT class” with the 911 RSR.
It says that it will keep the LMP1 team intact, including the driver line-up, and will likely use them to focus on the Formula E project.
