Nooo! Porsche has cancelled its Le Mans programme

It doesn’t happen all that often, but we can’t help but feel that Porsche is about to make a monumental mistake. It has just announced that its factory team Porsche Penske Motorsport will leave the FIA World Endurance Championship at the end of the current season.

Yep, that means no factory-backed Porsche 963 hypercars at Le Mans next year. Just when things  were getting interesting. Boooo. And perhaps the worst part is that Porsche is leaving WEC to focus on its involvement in Formula E. We’re not making this up.

“We very much regret that, due to the current circumstances, we will not be continuing our involvement in the WEC after this season,” said Dr Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board for Development at Porsche AG.

We presume those circumstances refer to the wider business (with Porsche also announcing that sales this year are six per cent down compared to the first nine months of last year) rather than just the fact that Ferrari has won Le Mans three times in a row with its 499P hypercar. When Porsche does endurance racing it usually wins. The 963’s best Le Mans result was a second-place finish earlier this year.

“In Formula E, Porsche is gaining valuable insights for its electric production sports cars,” reads the statement trying to justify this decision. “The fourth generation of Formula E cars will be introduced for season 13 (2026/27) and will bring further development freedom. This will enable Porsche to achieve an even steeper learning curve for its all-electric production vehicles.”

Still, there’s at least some good news for US-based endurance racing fans, because Porsche and Penske will continue running 963s in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. That’s been selected over WEC because North America remains Porsche's largest market.