To celebrate claiming the 2018/19 World Endurance GTE Manufacturers’ Championship, Porsche GT Team will run a special ‘Champion’ livery on their FIA World Endurance Championship cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Having pulled a lead of 93 points over closest rival Ferrari, Porsche secured the manufacturers’ title at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps last month. Their consistent run of always having at least one car on the class podium, as well as their one-two finish at last year’s Le Mans became too much of a challenge for the other manufacturers to beat.
Since taking the title, Ford and BMW have announced they are both departing WEC after Le Mans. Porsche have expressed that they feel the Super Season was the most important year to take the GTE manufacturers’ championship. Team director Pascal Zurlinden told Motorsport.com: “This is the best season to win it. In a world championship with five manufacturers, 10 cars and 30 drivers fighting for the title, winning the championship one race from the end is a dream.
“Coming to Le Mans there is less pressure for the championship, but nothing will replace a Le Mans win. We won last year and won the championship, so we have a lot of pressure to win it again.”
Last year, celebrating their 70th year of racing, Porsche elected to run the retro ‘Pink Pig’ and ‘Rothmans’ liveries on their WEC-competing cars. This year, the #91 and #92 Porsche 911 RSRs will both feature the special championship gold livery, which sees the red accents of the usual 2018/19 livery changed to gold.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Porsches also get a new look for the blue-riband event, with a reprise of the Brumos Racing livery they ran at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring earlier this year.
Credit: Porsche Motorsport 
Credit: Porsche Motorsport
Although the WEC liveries are a celebration of securing the manufacturers’ title, the drivers’ title in GTE is still to be decided. Kevin Estre, Michael Christensen, Giamaria Bruni and Richard Lietz have done a great job during the Super Season to pull out enough of a lead at the top of the championship that only one of the two pairings can take the title.
Estre and Christensen have the advantage in the #92, holding a 36-point lead over the sister car, but the battle for class honour as well as the championship will certainly be something to watch at next week’s highly anticipated motorsport event.
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