Porsche has announced that Frédéric Makowiecki and Michael Christensen will complete its GTE Pro line-ups for the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In addition to the twice-around-the-clock enduro, the pair will also join the team for the eight-hour championship round at Portimao.
Makowiecki will once again team up with the full-season duo of Richard Lietz and Gianmaria Bruni aboard the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19.
The Frenchman, who holds three class wins at Le Mans, has raced alongside Lietz and Bruni at Le Mans for the previous three editions of the race, notably scoring two second places in 2018 and 2019.
“It’s great that I can share driving duties in the number 91 car at Le Mans with Gimmi and Richie for the fourth year in a row,” said Makowiecki. “We’re a very well-oiled threesome and we’ve always done well at our races.
“Unfortunately, it’s never been quite enough for us to win our class at Le Mans yet, but that should change this year.
“We’ll tackle the WEC race in Portugal with the aim of refining the interaction with our new race engineer John McGregor.”
“There’s not a lot of time to work on some aspects during the Le Mans week, so we’ll do that in Portimão. That puts us in a good starting position.”
Meanwhile, former works driver Christensen will complete the driving squad for the #92 Porsche, joining the full-season pairing of Kevin Estre and Neel Jani. The Dane was formerly Estre’s full-season partner from 2017 to 2020, but has been replaced by Jani.
With Christensen now stepping into the role of endurance driver, it marks an end of the partnership between Estre, Christensen and Laurens Vanthoor that famously won the class in 2018 and delivered the world championship in 2019.
“I’m very much looking forward to our joint outing in the number 92 car at the Portimão race,” said Christensen. “I also feel particularly fortunate to be able to drive for Porsche at Le Mans this year.
“It’s the biggest, toughest and most important race on the calendar every year and, if we’re successful, the most wonderful. I hope we’ll perform as well as we did in 2018. Another class victory would be a dream come true.”
Pascal Zurlinden, Director of Factory Motorsport, explains that Porsche has opted to pick an experienced line-up for its assault on its first class win since 2018.
“Between them, these six nominated drivers have a total of 59 Le Mans races under their belts. This experience is invaluable,” says Zurlinden. “There’s absolutely no doubt that we’ll be very well-positioned for the highlight of the year. The eight-hour WEC race in Portimão is the perfect complement to our intense preparation for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”
