Wehrlein Chasing “More and More Experience” With Penske

Photo: Michele Scudiero/Porsche

Pascal Wehrlein is chasing “more and more experience” as he joins Porsche Penske Motorsport at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps to prepare for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, adding that the working environment is ‘not completely new’ due to his experience with Porsche in Formula E.

The reigning ABB FIA Formula E world champion is set to make his Le Mans debut as part of Porsche Penske’s third Hypercar entry at the French endurance classic.

As part of the preparations for Le Mans, he has been inserted into the lineup for the No. 6 Porsche 963, driving alongside full season pairing Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre.

Wehrlein has one previous race start in Porsche’s LMDh platform under his belt, joining JDC-Miller Motorsports for the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.

While he hasn’t raced for Porsche Penske before, he did drive the 963 as part of an endurance test at Sebring International Raceway in October 2022, which came before the car made its race debut.

Speaking with Sportscar365 at Spa, the German said that he is aiming to soak up as much knowledge as he can ahead of Le Mans, both about the intricacies of endurance racing as well as specifics about the Multimatic-chassised LMDh car.

“I think you never stop learning,” Wehrlein said.

“The biggest difference is obviously racing in traffic and different kinds of cars and categories. Trying to [spend] the least amount of time overtaking them.

“Otherwise, it’s a racing car. It’s every other car. Things like driver changes and so on, obviously you need to practice once you once you have it, that’s all fine.

“The car behaves a bit different, the tires are a bit different. I need to get as good an understanding of the systems and so on. Everything develops with more and more experience.”

Wehrlein noted that he had his eye on the 963 program for some time, but that he previously placed his complete focus on his Formula E program, winning his maiden world championship in the electric single seater series last year.

“So far it has always been the idea to not have any compromises and really have to focus on one championship, which in my case has always been Formula E,” he said.

“Since I joined Porsche, the dual program was out of contention. What is clear is that we had to do our job in the championship we are racing and then if there might be some opportunities, that could open doors.

“Obviously it was very important to have a good season last year. Porsche bringing a third car into Le Mans, that’s when all the ideas started, if that could be something.

“Let’s say that work is in progress since a couple of months already.

“The idea has been there for a long time to me that I want to be racing in Le Mans one day and race in endurance racing, but so far there was never the opportunity to do so because the focus was on Formula E.”

Wehrlein also spoke highly of the John Church-led JDC-Miller operation with which he made his LMDh debut at Daytona, noting it as a “great environment” to start his journey with the 963.

“I still have contact with John and he still texts me every every now and then if I did a race well,” Wehrlein said.

“I really loved the experience there and it was a great environment for me to get my first taste of endurance racing.

“Arriving here at Porsche Penske, it’s a much bigger environment, a lot more people involved, a lot bigger team.

“Obviously here everything is based on success, we want to be successful, we want to win Le Mans, we want to win a championship here in Spa and everything is super performance driven.

“In combination with being already a part of Porsche since a long long time now, five years I’m with the team already obviously I know already quite a lot of people as well and it’s not something completely new for me.”