Christian Ried: Two Porsche 963s In 2023, FIA WEC & IMSA

With another media outlet having decided that their ‘scoop’ was more important than the Team Owner’s trust, we can now report that Proton Competition will become the second Porsche 963 privateer entrant in both the 2023 FIA WEC’s HyperCar class and the GTP class for the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship. Here are some comments from […]

With another media outlet having decided that their ‘scoop’ was more important than the Team Owner’s trust, we can now report that Proton Competition will become the second Porsche 963 privateer entrant in both the 2023 FIA WEC’s HyperCar class and the GTP class for the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship.

Here are some comments from Team Owner Christian Ried gathered as long ago as the Fuji WEC race meeting, with an agreement in place that this announcement would be held for the correct point to respect contractual confidences.

Christian, tell us a little of the story so far in these huge developments for the team?

“Since we started WEC in 2012 we had some great races and a really great time, it’s a pleasure to be here and to have had a chance to do all the races. But if you look forward, 2023 will be the last year of GTE.

“So looking at the team, there are two options of going to GT3 which is, more or less, a step backwards, or going to LMDH, which is a new challenge for our team. But you know, even if I did all the races, I’m still young. So I accept the challenge to do something new. It’s a pleasure to have the car in the first year. So I’m super happy and looking forward to seeing all this new project will be.”

Now I think I’m right, in my recollection, I think you were the very first WEC team owner to confirm that you were interested in a team in the new class. It’s taken a while to get here. It’s been a bit of a journey, commercially, I’m sure technically, it must be a relief to get this over the line?

“I’m pretty sure I was the first because when Porsche announced that they will do LMDh I texted 10 minutes later, to Pascal Zurlinden at the time, and said I needed three cars! I still remember when Porsche announced the end of GTE in IMSA, it texted them again and said that I needed four cars!

“The car and the systems are complicated. And it’s still a developing process. It’s new for everybody. It’s new for Porsche, it’s new for Bosch, all the other manufacturers, everybody’s in the same boat.

“So as long as the car is not tested, and everything is homologated, it’s not easy to commit, especially on the timeline.

“This is sort of an open point for next year, it’s not confirmed when we can have the cars, so we are on standby. As soon as we have a date, we are pushing to the full season.

“At the moment it looks like we miss for sure Daytona in 2023 and also possibly Sebring in IMSA and WEC. It’s not confirmed. So we still hope as it would be nice to do it. But it is what it is.”

You have a house full of second generation, in fact, third generation racers, that must be taking more your time now?

“First of all, for sure, the LMDH programme is challenging, and we’ll have to put some time in this programme to see how it goes. But also the family with the kids doing more and more races. At the end, it’s time for me to take one step back, let the young kids race and let the team race the LMDH and just see how it goes.”

Is this a choice between moving from GTE to LMDH? Or is there going to be a GT programme in the future, as well,

“For sure we keep the GT programmes. It’s where we’re coming from. It’s our DNA. The 911 – I love this car, so for sure, we will do some GT racing as well. But the top programme for the team for the engineers, the mechanics, the challenging stuff will be the LMDH for sure.”

So GT3 too, and also we already know, you’ll be adding a Carrera Cup Deutschland programme too for the first time in 2023 – A third tier to your programmes for the first time?

There’s some changes coming for your organisation?

“I need some more guys yes!”

Let’s talk a little about IMSA. That’s been a more recent part of the Proton story and a pretty successful part of the story too.

It’s clear that you’ve enjoyed that challenge. And a move to an LMDH car with IMSA as well, secures that move into another booming top class. What detail can you give us at the moment about that programme?

“The detail on the IMSA programme really depends on when you can have the car. If you look at the calendar and we miss Daytona and Sebring is not sure, it means that we have to start in Long Beach.

Okay. Not the best place to start with a prototype programme.

So Sebring yes or no is a pretty critical decision?

“Yes, we have to wait until we have the official date for the car.

One final question. You mentioned that initial call to Porsche about three cars. Was that a third car as a running spare or is there a plan to expand from where we are?

“The idea was, we knew, when we stopped with GTE, we needed a programme with two cars. So the idea was to run two in the WEC and perhaps one in IMSA. But without GTE anymore it now makes more sense to run two cars in both championships.”

So the potential is there for an expansion in both programmes?

“We have to see first if Porsche will supply more cars to customers, and how the car is.

“Right now, for me, the future in motorsports especially in endurance, the future looks really really great.

“With Hypercar and LMDH, and GTP in IMSA there is a LOT of interest from teams, manufacturers, drivers and spectators, so it looks really good. But there are also some challenges like the technical side – BoP to balance all the different systems.

“We have to see how ’23 is going and then we make a decision (on the expansion of the programme(s), mid to the end of the year.”

Since completing this interview DSC has further established that Proton have considered in-depth a potential ‘bridging’ programme in LMP2 whilst awaiting the delivery f their 963s but that this was rejected some time ago.

There will be further announcements from the team with regard to additional programmes!