Mark Webber will have a new car at his disposal next season as Porsche ramps up its attack on the World Endurance Championship.
Porsche LMP1 technical director Alex Hitzinger has confirmed that the company’s second-year effort will be based around a new tub.
The new 919 Hybrid is however expected to retain the same basic powertrain layout as the current model, which features a turbocharged, four-cylinder petrol engine complimented by exhaust and drive shaft driven electric generators.
“It will be pretty much a new car, and that was the decision from the beginning of the program,” Hitzinger told Autosport.
“It was always the plan that we would do a new tub and redesign the car based on what we’d learned in the first year of racing.
“We are a new design team and we can’t be expected to correctly optimise our first design shot.”
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Webber and co-drivers Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard sit equal 20th in the WEC drivers’ standings after four of eight rounds with a best finish of third at the Silverstone season-opener.
Team-mates Marc Lieb/Romain Dumas/Neel Jani are 12th, scoring less than half the points of the leading Toyota drivers to date.
The championship will continue with the 6 Hours of Fuji on October 10-12.
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