Porsche Penske confirms 2026 IMSA driver line-up after WEC exit
by Rachit Thukral · AutosportThree drivers move across from WEC as Porsche reveals IMSA line-up for 2026
Porsche Penske Motorsport has announced the six drivers that will represent the team in the 2026 IMSA SportsCar Championship.
Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre will move over from Porsche’s now-defunct World Endurance Championship programme and reunite in IMSA’s GTP class, sharing the #6 Porsche 963 LMDh for the full season.
The pair will be joined in the five enduros by Matt Campbell, who will move into a reduced role at the team after winning this year’s GTP title alongside Mathieu Jaminet.
Felipe Nasr will remain behind the wheel of the #7 Porsche but will have a new team-mate in the form of Julien Andlauer, who represented PPM as a factory driver in the WEC this year.
Laurin Heinrich has been named as the third driver for the #7 car after making his debut LMDh outing in this month’s WEC finale in Bahrain, where he replaced team regular Michael Christensen.
It remains unclear whether Porsche will add a fourth driver to each car for the season-opening Daytona 24 Hours in January.
Porsche’s exit from Hypercar after just three seasons has forced a downsizing of its LMDh driver roster.
Instead of having eight full-timers across the two programmes, it will have just four drivers racing the 963 for the full season, supplemented by two additional drivers for the Michelin Endurance Cup.
Notable absentees from Porsche’s 2026 line-up are Christensen and Nick Tandy. The latter made history at the beginning of this year when he became the first driver to complete the unofficial sextuple crown of endurance racing’s six biggest events - winning the 24-hour Le Mans, Daytona, Nurburging and Spa-Francorchamps races, as well as Petit Le Mans and the Sebring 12 Hours outright..
Newly-crowned IMSA champion Jaminet is also departing, with Genesis having already announced that he will move to its new Hypercar project in 2026.
Porsche and Penske dominated the 2025 IMSA season, sweeping the drivers’, teams’ and manufacturers’ titles. The German manufacturer also scored a victory in the WEC, but ended the year third in the championship, behind winner Ferrari and second-placed Toyota.
It missed out on a record-extending 20th-win at Le Mans 24 Hours as Estre, Vanthoor and Campbell finished second to the race-winning #83 Ferrari of Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye.
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- The Autosport.com Team