André Lotterer has been in the FIA World Endurance Championship LMP1 class since 2009, starting out with Audi Sport before making the switch to Porsche this year. With his second team in two years pulling out of the sport, the German driver finds himself, once again, in the situation of looking for a competitive race seat next year. Lotterer clearly loves endurance racing and the WEC as he has stated this week that he is open to racing in a privateer LMP1 car.
Lotterer does have one seat for next year: driving in Formula E with the Techeetah team, but the three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner is keen to remain on the endurance scene; He is interested to see how the WEC will act to make sure competition is close between the incoming privateer LMP1 teams and Toyota Gazoo Racing, who are looking more likely to stay in the championship after hinting at more of a commitment to the future.
The current Porsche driver has been very clear in ruling out LMP2, stating that he is only interested in driving in the top tier. “I would like to continue racing in LMP1” he told Autosport. “You hear a lot of private teams are coming. We don’t know how they are going to balance it.
“From what I hear they want to balance it in a fair way but of course if Toyota stays, which I guess they will, they will be the favourites.
“If it’s a seriously good [private] project for sure I would like to race. But let’s see what kind of teams will be on board next year. It’s not just about participating, it needs to make sense, to be with good team mates.
“It could also be a transitional year to build something stronger for the future.”
Lotterer is making no commitments to the future privateer teams, but is stating that he will be keeping a close eye on their progress. He may not be climbing into an endurance cockpit in 2018, but the possibilities are endless for 2019.
