Three Le Mans wins. Sixteen years away from the top class. One return.
Why Porsche came back
After the 911 GT1 program ended in 1998, Porsche stayed out of the top class of endurance racing for sixteen years. The company continued in customer sports car classes with the 996 and 997 GT3 Cup programs, but the factory effort sat at the LMP2 level at best. The closing decade of the 2000s saw Audi dominate Le Mans almost completely with the R8, R10, R15, and R18 prototypes.
In 2011 Porsche announced a return to the top class. The new LMP1 regulations for 2014 included specific provisions for hybrid powertrains, energy recovery, and fuel-efficiency-based competition. The rules suited Porsche philosophically. The company had been doing hybrid work in production cars (the Cayenne S Hybrid, the Panamera S Hybrid) and had research programs on energy recovery systems. The factory effort was greenlit.
The 919 Hybrid debuted at the 6 Hours of Silverstone in April 2014. Its first Le Mans was June 2014.
The car
The 919 used a 2.0 liter turbocharged V4 engine, a carbon-fiber monocoque chassis, and two energy recovery systems. The first ERS recovered braking energy from the front axle into a battery. The second ERS used the turbo system's exhaust to drive an additional generator. The total system output, combined internal combustion plus electric, was approximately 900 horsepower. The car weighed under 870 kilograms.
The hybrid system contributed roughly 400 horsepower under acceleration. The internal combustion engine handled the steady-state output. The energy recovered from braking and exhaust feeds back into hard acceleration zones. The result was a car that could match or exceed pure internal combustion competitors on a fuel budget that was roughly 30 percent lower than the previous-generation LMP1 cars.
The 2014 season
The first year of the program was a learning year. The 919 was fast in qualifying but had reliability problems in race conditions. The factory's two entries at Le Mans 2014 both retired. Best finish in the World Endurance Championship that year was second place at Circuit of the Americas in September.
The 2014 results were below expectations, but the team learned the platform. The car was substantially revised over the winter of 2014 to 2015.
2015, 2016, 2017
The 2015 Le Mans was the breakthrough. The 919 Hybrid driven by Earl Bamber, Nico Hülkenberg, and Nick Tandy finished first overall. The sister car driven by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, and Marc Lieb finished second. A factory 1-2 finish at Le Mans for the first time since 1998. Porsche won the World Endurance Championship that year as well.
The 2016 Le Mans was won by the Dumas, Jani, Lieb car. Porsche won the WEC championship again.
The 2017 Le Mans was won by the Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley car after the lead Toyota suffered an engine failure with three hours remaining. The win came under controversy because of how the lead changed, but the result counted. Porsche won the WEC championship for the third consecutive year.
Three Le Mans wins in three years. Three WEC championships. The factory program achieved more in three seasons than the 911 GT1 had achieved in three years two decades earlier.
The 919 Hybrid Evo
After the WEC program ended in late 2017, Porsche developed a non-competition version of the 919 called the Evo. The car had no FIA regulatory restrictions. Porsche removed the energy storage limits, removed the fuel flow limits, and increased the boost. Total system output was approximately 1,160 horsepower.
Timo Bernhard drove the 919 Hybrid Evo around the Nürburgring Nordschleife in May 2018 and recorded a lap time of 5:19.55. The previous outright lap record was Stefan Bellof's 6:11.13 in the 956 from 1983. The 919 Hybrid Evo had cut roughly 51 seconds off the record. The lap, available online, shows the car achieving sustained 235 kilometers per hour around sections of the Nordschleife where most cars cannot maintain half that speed.
Why the program ended
Porsche withdrew from LMP1 at the end of 2017 to redirect the racing budget to Formula E. The decision was strategic. Formula E was growing as a category. The cost of competing in LMP1 had escalated with the hybrid era. The Volkswagen Group, of which Porsche AG is part, was also dealing with the financial consequences of the diesel emissions scandal. The reallocation was the kind of decision that made sense at a corporate level even though it disappointed the racing community.
The 919 Hybrid race cars now live in the Porsche Museum. The Evo is displayed there as well. Porsche has since returned to top-class racing with the 963 LMDh program, but the 963 is a hybrid sports prototype on a Multimatic chassis, not a pure factory prototype like the 919.