The official Porsche press release begins by recalling that the German make has notched up more wins in the Le Mans 24 Hours (16) than any other carmaker. Its most recent success dates back to 1998 when Laurent Aiello/Stéphane Ortelli/Allan McNish steered the Michelin-equipped 911 GT1/Michelin to victory in 1998. Exactly 28 years before that, its first triumph came with the short-tailed 917 in 1970 (Herrmann/Attwood).

“It was only a matter of time before we returned as a factory to the top league of racing,” says Matthias Müller, President of Porsche AG’s Executive Board, who unsurprisingly states that the carmaker’s aim is to add a 17^th win to its record…

Porsche is currently one of the front-runners in the LM GTE class and is also working hard on the development of the hybrid-engined Porsche Hybrid which briefly led last weekend’s Nürburgring 24 Hours.

Hartmut Kristen, Head of Porsche Motorsport, admits that he is looking forward to developing new technologies and building on the recent success enjoyed by the Porsche RS Spyder in the LMP2 class (Le Mans Series titles in 2008 and 2009). “After the conclusion of our works-supported sports prototype programme in the American Le Mans Series we have kept up with the latest technological advances. Now we will begin with detailed research in order to evaluate the various concept alternatives for our new car. These obviously depend on how the regulations for the year 2014 look in detail. In principle, these regulations are interesting for us because the integration of our hybrid technology in the vehicle concept is one possible option.”

So, instead of going down the Formula 1 road, Porsche seems to have preferred world class endurance racing as a means to showcase its engineering expertise. How much that has to do with the official announcement of an FIA-sanctionned World Endurance Championship shortly before June’s Le Mans 24 Hours remains to be seen, but the countless fans of both the brand and the discipline will clearly be thrilled by today’s news.

Porsche, Porsche LMP1 2014