Porsche contested the 2023 DTM season with three teams, but as things stand only Manthey EMA has committed to continuing in the series next year. Team Bernhard has decided to step down entirely from GT3 racing due to high costs, while Toksport WRT is still working with Porsche regarding a programme for next year.
Toksport WRT made waves on its DTM debut when it outshone the entire field at Oschersleben, clinching an emphatic victory with Christian Engelhart and scoring two other podiums between Englehart and rookie Tim Heinemann. In fact, so impressive were Toksport’s results in the opening double header that Heinemann took the lead of the championship at this early stage of the season.
However, Oschersleben would prove to be a false dawn for Toksport and the team would fail to break inside the top 10 in the remaining seven rounds of the season. A mid-season decision to replace Engelhart with Marvin Dienst also failed to help the squad in turning around its fortunes.
Team Bernhard occasionally appeared at the front in 2023 courtesy of two podiums and a pole by Laurin Heinrich, but no Porsche team found a recipe against the championship-winning Manthey EMA operation.
Beating the German squad is tricky as Manthey is 51% owned by Porsche and from this perspective its involvement in the DTM can be considered a pseudo-factory effort. Critics question whether Porsche would allow another team to be stronger - or even on par - with Manthey EMA.
This was one of the factors that acted as a deterrent for SSR Performance from entering the 2023 season with Porsche, with the squad eventually joining forces with rival brand Lamborghini.
Porsche, however, maintains that it supports all its team equally. This includes the provision of spare parts and technical support, and in special cases, performance support, which consists of Porsche drivers and engineers.
“We don’t take over the cars, that’s very important to us,” explained Porsche Motorsport Director Thomas Laudenbach. "Each team has its own engineers, we are advisory.
“There is also to a very small extent financial support. In this sense, financial means parts packages. The financing, the business case, lies largely with the teams. That's exactly the difference to factory motorsport."
Source: Autosport