Former Audi factory driver Andre Lotterer had his first test of the Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 at a test at Aragon Circuit in Spain earlier this week.
The three-times 24 Hours of Le Mans winner was left without a drive for the 2017 after Audi announced they would be withdrawing from the FIA World Endurance Championship at the end of last season. With Mark Webber retiring and various internal positions moved around, a vacant seat was created with the championship winning team and Lotterer joined the sister team.
Speaking on Twitter, Lotterer confirmed his excitement of the day:
https://twitter.com/Andre_Lotterer/status/816335750140690438
Alongside the retirement of Webber, Porsche have shuffled roles for Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas, creating another opening for 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans victor, Nick Tandy, who will join Lotterer and Neel Jani for the season.
In the second 919 Hybrid, Timo Bernhard and Brendan Hartley will be joined by Tandy’s 2015 team-mate Earl Bamber.
While there were rumours of Porsche and Toyota running three cars throughout the season to fill out the LMP1 Hybrid category, it looks set that there will only be four full season entries with the two Porsche’s being joined by two Toyota’s.
