As the FIA World Endurance Championship teams gathered in Germany for round four of the championship this weekend, Porsche revealed on home soil that they will be part of the LM P1 battle through to at least the end of 2018.

Porsche made its debut last year and dominated the late season races of last year’s FIA WEC before winning at Le mans this year.

“Motorsport is an important part of Porsche’s brand identity – but not an end in itself,” Matthias Mueller, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG, said.

“Racing must help the technology of future road going sports cars. It was the revolutionary efficiency regulations that convinced us to return to top-level motorsport for the 2014 season.

“That we have managed to take the crown jewel of endurance racing in only our second year, with a one-two result in Le Mans in 2015 with our highly innovative and complex 919, is an outstanding testimony to the people in the Weissach research and development center.

“The overall competition bears fruit and we see further potential for future synergy between the racing and road car programs. This is why we have extended the program.”

For class one Le Mans prototypes (LMP1) entered by manufacturers, the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) regulations stipulate hybrid systems and limit the amount of energy (fuel and electricity) available per lap. 

“Porsche sets benchmarks in the WEC. The two-liter V4-cylinder turbo charged petrol engine with a performance of over 500 hp is the most efficient combustion engine we have built so far,” Wolfgang Hatz, Member of the Executive Board, Research and Development, said.

“Our energy recovery systems are the most powerful ones on the entire grid. Up until now no other manufacturer is able to provide eight megajoules of electric power for the distance of one lap in Le Mans. It is easy to detect that the challenge provided by the sport pushes our engineers to extreme performances.”

The German manufacturer continues to be a strong contender in GT racing – currently leading the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans class after winning the past four races in North America.