DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — During the last three years, watching the Porsche Penske Motorsport driver lineups evolve within the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship has generally been a dizzying expertise.
That have basically created a high-profile sport of musical chairs when Porsche opted to focus solely on IMSA and withdraw from WEC for 2026, which took as much as six driver seats off the desk.
When the music stopped, solely one in all Porsche Penske Motorsport’s 4 2025 full-season IMSA Grand Touring Prototype drivers emerged again in the identical chair for 2026: three-time top-class IMSA prototype champion Felipe Nasr.
Mathieu Jaminet (moved to Genesis), Matt Campbell (shifted to a Michelin Endurance Cup function) and Nick Tandy (reassigned to GT with AO Racing’s No. 77 “Rexy” Porsche 911 GT3 R) are in new roles. However exhibiting Porsche and Penske’s power in numbers, previous WEC champions Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor returned to America, Julien Andlauer stepped right into a full-time function and Laurin Heinrich has been promoted to a Michelin Endurance Cup seat.
Roger Penske described the adjustments succinctly throughout a Rolex 24 Porsche media roundtable: “Now, we now have Estre and Vanthoor right here with Campbell. We now have Andlauer and Laurin coming in. And Felipe has been a typical bearer for us.”
Nasr and Campbell’s new teammates aren’t new to IMSA, however they might have to reintroduce themselves of their IMSA GTP roles. Right here’s how they superior to the very high of the sports activities automobile racing pyramid with Porsche and Penske:
Kevin Estre
At 37, Estre is the oldest member of the Porsche lineup, with a manufacturing facility affiliation relationship to 2016 (seen proper with Vanthoor in 2017, when the 2 had been IMSA GT Le Mans teammates with Porsche). Estre gained the Porsche Carrera Cup in France in 2011 and Germany two years later, and he additionally claimed the 2019 LMGTE Professional (much like IMSA’s GTD PRO) class championship within the FIA WEC.
Vanthoor and Estre are the one two drivers who drove in all 23 FIA WEC races for Porsche Penske Motorsport during the last three years. Teamed along with Andre Lotterer, they claimed the 2024 Hypercar championship with wins at Losail, Qatar and Fuji, Japan. Estre, Vanthoor and Campbell added one other WEC race win on the 2025 Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas close to Austin, Texas.
This yr’s Rolex 24 marked Estre’s twenty fourth profession IMSA begin; he has eight profession podiums however surprisingly, no wins. An eight-start season in a Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America in 2014 marked his most lively season and he’s wanting to deal with his first full WeatherTech Championship marketing campaign.
“There can be new challenges, issues very totally different to WEC between races and race tracks,” Estre stated. “I really feel a bit like a rookie, however becoming a member of the profitable crew, conserving Laurens with me, and in addition our efficiency engineer, it feels a little bit of a WEC spirit in there. We’ve been collectively and gained races and championships, so it was a straightforward name.”
With GT- and prototype-level championships in WEC underneath his belt, taking an IMSA crown is likely one of the few achievements left for him to chase.
“I’m actually happy with what’s been achieved, however I wish to win extra – like all of us,” he stated. “It’s been a tremendous journey, beginning in GT. I’ve been in many various automobiles, all of the racing automobiles Porsche has had. I’ve been lucky to win in all of the automobiles – championships or large races, an enormous a part of Porsche historical past in motorsport.
“I’m actually joyful, and a full season of IMSA with Porsche was lacking on my bucket record. We needed to tick that off, and hopefully it’s a very good sign.”
Laurens Vanthoor
Affectionately recognized inside the Penske Porsche Motorsport crew as “Larry,” Laurens Vanthoor is not any stranger to IMSA followers. The truth is, he’s gained a complete of 13 occasions in WeatherTech Championship competitors, together with total and GTP class victories within the 2024 and ’25 Rolex 24 and the ‘2025 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Vanthoor was additionally a part of IMSA championship-winning efforts for the Porsche manufacturing facility (GT Le Mans, 2019) and Pfaff Motorsports (GTD, 2021).
However after racing a Porsche 963 full-time for Porsche Penske Motorsport (profitable the Hypercar championship in 2024) whereas sustaining a glittering worldwide file driving GT-class Porsches, a full-time assault on IMSA’s high class is likely one of the few mountains Vanthoor has left to climb. Fourth was a tricky final result for the No. 6 automobile on the Rolex 24.
“The irritating half is the entire ‘Roar Earlier than the 24’ and race lead up, the whole lot was so easy,” Vanthoor stated on the ‘Over the Restrict’ podcast he produces along with his brother Dries, who drives for BMW M Staff WRT within the WeatherTech Championship.
“I’m not saying we had been fast or not, however the whole lot we had been testing was making sense and dealing, and all of the drivers had been joyful. The automobile was good and we had been really super-relaxed. However in Hour 2, we suffered large harm when Kevin was within the automobile and an LMP2 T-boned him within the facet. We had an enormous gap within the sidepod and within the flooring. We positively misplaced some efficiency.”
Julien Andlauer
Andlauer has been on a quick observe up the Porsche ladder since he began racing within the Carrera Cup France in 2016. He gained the championship in 2017, then turned the youngest-ever class winner on the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, the place one in all his LMGTE Am class teammates was Campbell.
Andlauer then gained the 2019 Carrera Cup Germany to earn Porsche Younger Skilled standing in 2020. By 2024, he was driving a privately entered Porsche 963 within the WEC for Proton Competitors earlier than being promoted to a manufacturing facility Porsche Penske Motorsport WEC entry in 2025. Teamed primarily with Michael Christensen, he impressed sufficient to land one of many coveted full-time PPM seats in IMSA for 2026. For sure, the previous couple of years have been a whirlwind.
“It’s been a tremendous final two or three years, I’ve to say, stepping up right into a manufacturing facility program,” Andlauer stated. “I believe I packed rather a lot right into a backpack of studying the final two years. Now I’m with the massive canines, sharing the automobile with them, studying and competing with them. PPM have been so profitable over the previous few years, which is improbable. Hopefully we’ll proceed this yr.”
Andlauer earned three GTD class podiums in 13 IMSA begins (all in 2023 with Kellymoss with Riley) earlier than being a part of the profitable crew with Nasr and Heinrich within the No. 7 Porsche on this yr’s season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona Worldwide Speedway. However he nonetheless hasn’t accomplished a full season within the WeatherTech Championship and understands that there’s a lot to study.
“It’s not straightforward to be quick; it’s not really easy to be aggressive and never really easy both to win a race,” Andlauer stated. “However it’s clearly very troublesome to win a championship. What we noticed with the No. 6 automobile is that they gained just one or two races final yr, however they had been at all times within the high 4 or 5 all season lengthy. That is what counts, particularly when there isn’t a distinction in factors between a 24-hour race and a 1-1/2-hour race.”
Laurin Heinrich
If AO Racing crew co-owner Gunnar Jeanette had his druthers, he’d nonetheless have Laurin Heinrich on his driver roster. However Heinrich demonstrated a lot promise and potential on the best way to profitable 5 races and the 2024 IMSA GTD PRO title throughout two years behind the wheel of AO’s iconic ‘Rexy’ Porsche 911 GT3 R that he earned an opportunity to turn into a manufacturing facility prototype driver for the marque by the point he turned 23.
Heinrich handed his Porsche 963 audition within the 2025 FIA WEC season finale at Bahrain and is now embarking on his rookie GTP marketing campaign in IMSA with a Michelin Endurance Cup program in PPM’s No. 7 with Nasr and Andlauer on the three longest rounds at Daytona Worldwide Speedway (24 hours), Sebring Worldwide Raceway (12) and Michelin Raceway Highway Atlanta (10). It began with an total victory, the third consecutive within the Rolex 24 for Nasr and the No. 7 Porsche.
“It’s unbelievable to face right here at the moment; the journey has been so fast,” stated Heinrich, who ran a single season of open-wheel Formulation 4 in a small family-run crew earlier than switching to sports activities automobiles and advancing up the Porsche ladder. “I imply, it is a childhood dream. I do know my father was most likely glued to the display screen watching.
“After I assume again how we raced then and the way I’m racing these days, it’s an unbelievable journey,” he added. “It makes me extraordinarily proud, but in addition grateful for the chance that Porsche offers us younger expertise going by the junior ranks, Cup racing, and now being a manufacturing facility driver.”
