Porsche has announced the six drivers, who will do the longer rounds of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship.
The standard length is six hours in an FIA WEC event, but the Portimao round in Portugal will be eight hours, plus the race will serve as warm up race for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Car #91 will once again be raced by Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz throughout the full season. The Italian-Austrian pairing will once again have Frenchman Frederic Makowiecki join them. Those three have been paired at Le Mans since 2018, and know each other very well.
Photo: Porsche Motorsport
There are changes in car #92 for the 2021 season, with Kevin Estre being joined by Neel Jani in the Porsche 911 RSR. The former teammate of Estre, Michael Christensen, has been called back to duty for those two races only, which is a new role for the Dane. Laurens Vanthoor previously had the role of being third driver on that car – including for the 2018 race where Christensen and Estre (plus Vanthoor) won Le Mans, and the FIA WEC World Championship 2018/19. Vanthoor basically had the role of filling in for the regular pairing, when they were resting a role that goes to Christensen this time. This will be the eighth time for Christensen at Le Mans.
Porsche has made some upgrades to the 911 RSR during winter. Its predecessor was named RSR-19, but the 19 has gone again, which hints at some major upgrade to the car – without Porsche mentioning anything specifics yet. The rear exhaust system has returned to the car, after the 19 model ran side pipes.
The FIA World Endurance Championship 2021 season starts on 1 May at Spa Francorchamps, with Porsche opting to run two-driver pairings on both cars.
