Manufacturers · 4 min read · 628 words
What was the Porsche 919 Hybrid era?
The Porsche 919 Hybrid raced in the WEC's LMP1 class from 2014 to 2017. It won three consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans (2015, 2016 and 2017) and the manufacturers' and drivers' world titles in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The archive credits it with 16 WEC wins; the 2016 Le Mans, which a 919 also won, is not yet in the archive. Porsche left LMP1 at the end of 2017 to move into Formula E.
The car and the comeback
Porsche announced its return to top-class endurance racing in 2011, for a 2014 debut; it had last raced for outright Le Mans victory as a works team in 1998. The 919 Hybrid was built at Weissach around a 2.0-litre turbocharged V4 engine with hybrid energy recovery.
In the races held in the archive, the 919 started 33 races and took 16 wins, 42 podiums, 14 poles and 14 race fastest laps.
2014 was the learning year. Porsche's only win came at the season finale at Interlagos, with the No. 14 of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb.
2015 to 2017
In 2015 Porsche won six races, including a one-two at Le Mans: the No. 19 of Earl Bamber, Nico Hülkenberg and Nick Tandy finished ahead of the No. 17 of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley. It was Porsche's first overall Le Mans win since 1998. The No. 17 crew won four more races and the drivers' title, and Porsche took the manufacturers' title.
In 2016 Porsche won five races in the archive plus Le Mans. At Le Mans the leading Toyota lost power in the final minutes and the No. 2 919 of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb won. That crew took the drivers' title, and Porsche the manufacturers' title again.
In 2017 Bernhard, Hartley and Bamber won Le Mans in the No. 2 after the leading No. 1 919 retired, then won at the Nürburgring, Mexico City and the Circuit of the Americas. Toyota won the other five races, but the No. 2 crew took the drivers' title and Porsche its third straight manufacturers' title. The 919's last WEC win was the 2017 Circuit of the Americas round; Toyota won the last three races of the season.
The end of the programme
Porsche announced in 2017 that it would leave LMP1 at the end of the season and enter Formula E. Audi had left LMP1 a year earlier, which left Toyota as the only works team in the class from 2018.
In 2018 Porsche ran an unrestricted demonstration version, the 919 Hybrid Evo, which lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 5:19.55, faster than any car before it.
The drivers
The 919 era produced three drivers' world titles: Bernhard, Hartley and Webber in 2015, Dumas, Jani and Lieb in 2016, and Bernhard, Hartley and Bamber in 2017. Mark Webber retired at the end of 2016 with 8 overall WEC wins, all with Porsche.
Brendon Hartley joined Toyota for the 2019-20 season and later won Le Mans again with Toyota, in 2020 and 2022, so he has won Le Mans with both Porsche and Toyota; see who has won Le Mans. Earl Bamber returned to the top class in 2023 with Cadillac.
What the era means today
Porsche returned to the top class with the 963, which has 4 WEC wins. Up to the 2026 race, the 963 had not won Le Mans overall.
Last updated · porsche · 919 hybrid · lmp1 · le mans · mark webber · hartley