Just because you’re on the verge of winning the drivers championships in both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship doesn’t necessarily mean that things will stay the same going forward. Porsche Penske Motorsport announced Tuesday (Oct. 22) that there will be driver lineup changes within the IMSA and WEC squads for 2025.
In IMSA, 2024 champion Felipe Nasr will stay in the No. 7 Porsche 963 for next season. However, he will be joined for the full season by Nick Tandy. Tandy drove full-time in the No. 6 this year. Laurens Vanthoor will join in for the endurance events.
In the No. 6 Porsche, Mathieu Jaminet will return to the seat. Instead of Kevin Estre, he’ll be joined by Matt Campbell for the full season. Campbell drove the No. 7 alongside Nasr in 2023 and drove three races in that car this past season. Estre will still be in the car for the endurance races.
In the WEC, Porsche is cutting down their driver lineups to two drivers per car instead of three. The exception is Le Mans.
The No. 5 will be shared by Michael Christensen and Julien Andlauer. Christensen retains his seat from 2024, while Andlauer is new to the factory effort. This year, he has primarily raced in GT cars, most recently with AO Racing in IMSA’s GTD Pro class, but he has raced for Proton Competition in their customer 963s in both IMSA and the WEC this year. Jaminet is the team’s third driver for Le Mans.
The ascension of Andlauer to a full factory ride is considered a big deal for Porsche since he is a home grown talent. Andlauer has been in the Porsche program since winning the Porsche Carrera Cup France championship in 2017. That earned him a spot in the Porsche Junior program. Since then, he has excelled in Porsche 911s, winning in the WEC and the European Le Mans Series.
The No. 6 will be shared full-time by Estre and Vanthoor, both of whom are already driving the No. 6 and currently lead the Hypercar points by 35 with one race remaining. Campbell will be the team’s third driver.
That leaves three drivers out of the team. According to the release, Frederic Makowiecki and Porsche mutually agreed to end their relationship. Dane Cameron, who won the IMSA GTP championship with Nasr, and Andre Lotterer, will not be retained.
“We put much thought into our squad for next season’s international racing campaign. With the new lineup, I believe we’ve put together a winning combination for 2025,”…
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