Mueller: JDC Call-Up “Valuable” for Future Porsche 963 Chances

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Nico Mueller believes his call-up to join JDC-Miller Motorsports in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring will prove “very valuable” to the Swiss driver as he eyes further one-off appearances with Porsche alongside his duties as a Formula E factory driver.

The 33-year-old will make his event debut and only his second start in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship aboard the No. 85 Porsche 963, having been brought in to team up with Tijmen van der Helm and Gianmaria Bruni.

By his own admission, the call to join the John Church-led squad was “definitely last minute.”

“I think last Thursday is probably when the decision was taken,” Mueller told Sportscar365.

“I had no plans for that weekend in terms of racing somewhere else. So it was a very clear yes to that option and looking forward to making the most of it.”

Although Mueller hasn’t competed in the Florida endurance classic, he has experience of the Sebring circuit from a pair of FIA World Endurance Championship appearances.

He first raced on the notoriously challenging airfield circuit as part of Vector Sport’s LMP2 squad in 2022 before returning a year later as part of the Peugeot Hypercar effort he left at the end of last year to join Porsche.

“It will be a solid foundation to build on from the start of the weekend because at least trying to limit some of the variables will be important because there’s a lot of new things going on,” Mueller said.

“Obviously a brand new car that I’ve not driven yet, that I try to get the hang of as quickly as possible.

“A team that I’ve never worked with before, new teammates, etcetera. So a lot of new things to get on top of in a pretty short amount of time.

“[I’ve] not driven a Hypercar or a prototype since November in Bahrain as well. So it’s also a while back now.

“But I’m quite confident that with the experience of Gimmi, the team, Tijmen, they’ve been testing here as well.

“They give me a good feeling that you know we can hit the ground running.”

Mueller explained that his experience of the 963 prior to Thursday’s practice running was limited to simulator sessions, adding that he is going onto his first weekend with the Multimatic-chassised LMDh car ‘open-minded.’

“I’ve always loved to challenge myself and try different things, new things,” he said.

“I’ve thrown myself into cold water a few times, and I think it always turned out to be pretty alright.

“So I’m not worried, but if you could choose, obviously you would have loved to be here for the test in February and build up to it.

“For sure, that would be the optimal scenario to be prepared [as] best [as] possible.

“But still with the experience from having driven the Peugeot for a couple of years, of what I’ve heard, these cars in the LMDh spec versus the LMH, feel quite similar to the Class 1 cars that I’ve driven in DTM.

“So maybe I can use that sort of experience and pick that out of the far back [of my brain] again a little bit, I don’t know.”

Mueller is looking towards a “weekend of building experience,” not just with the car, but also with JDC-Miller, keeping an eye on future appearances.

“That will definitely make short-term calls in the future easier because it’s not like now where that you’ll be jumping into ice-cold water,” he said.

“You will have some experience already to bring into whatever the opportunity would be. So it’s definitely a very valuable weekend for me in that respect.”

When asked about the prospect of additional appearances at the wheel of a 963, Mueller replied: “I’d love to do some more IMSA races for sure.

“I think the ones upcoming in the Endurance Cup are always high up on the list. I mean, if you ask any of us we want to go back to Le Mans, [there’s no question].

“But it just has to fit into the whole program that we have for the season and we take it you know step after step.

“The focus is on Formula E. That’s going to be done end of July and once we reach that point, I think we can go a bit deeper into the planning for the rest of the year.

“But for the moment, my focus is FE. If there’s an opportunity to drive the 963, I’m never going to say no to that.”