The prototype for a prototype

The announcement last May by Porsche that Team Penske will run the factory cars in the World Endurance Championship, as well the IMSA SportsCar Championship, on the arrival of its new LMDh prototype in 2023 was nothing short of momentous. It meant the US giant would be ending long absences from not only world championship motor racing but also the Le Mans 24 Hours. Only those historic returns won’t be made next year: they are happening right now in 2022.

Penske will join the WEC – and therefore go back to Le Mans – this season with what might be described as a lead-in programme, one that tells you just how serious, diligent and, perhaps, humble the team is. A Team Penske-run car, an off-the-shelf ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2, will grace a world championship grid this Friday at the Sebring 1000 Miles WEC opener, a first since it called time on its Formula 1 programme at the end of 1976.

Then, come the second weekend of June, the car shared by two new Porsche factory drivers (Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron) and one old (Emmanuel Collard) will be back at the Circuit de la Sarthe after an even longer absence. It’s 51 years since the Sunoco-liveried Ferrari 512M driven by Mark Donohue and David Hobbs graced the grid.

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