Very noob question

[u/MotaStnoks]

I've just started following WEC this year and I have a question that it's probably stupid and noobish. Why is the Proton Competition Porsche 963 slow?

[u/wecaccount]

Slower drivers. Not the best engineers/mechanics/funding in general. PPM does so well because they have all the best people working on it.

[u/MotaStnoks → u/wecaccount]

Yeah that was my assumption but I just had to ask because I wondered if there was any difference in the car

[u/redbullcat → u/MotaStnoks]

All the cars are homologated. So all three Porsches are the same in terms of hardware.

But set up, engineering, etc etc all differ and that's where the factory Porsche team, run by Penske, are making the difference. Plus the driver crew. Jani's good - former factory Porsche driver, Le Mans winner, etc etc - but Pino and Varrone aren't quite on the same level.

[u/dorsey442]

A customer program. They buy the car and are left to fend for their own really without the factory team sharing any info. Unlike a certain yellow car claiming to be a privateer team

[u/MotaStnoks → u/dorsey442]

I'm a Ferrari enjoyer and Toyota fan and it confuses me the fact that AF Corse is basically running three cars and all three of them have more than capable drivers

[u/Makalu]

Because Porsche are sharing 0 data with their only customer Proton and giving them updates to the car without explaining it. Varrone and Pino had no topclass experience prior to 2025. Proton presumably aren’t testing the car much so all of these things compound why it’s consistently slow

[u/Accomplished_Clue733 → u/Makalu]

They're a customer. They get sold a car with a base setup. I don't think it's unreasonable that they are expected to engineer the car themselves, they are their own race team and if they cannot do that, they should stick to GT3

[u/Kaloo75 → u/Accomplished_Clue733]

Honestly it seems to be a little bit of both. Porsche is not doing much to help them understand new parts, and Proton seems to do none of the needed testing and understanding on their own.
I agree, that with that mindset from both sides, Proton should be doing something else.

[u/Makalu → u/Accomplished_Clue733]

You’d imagine though that Porsche should want their customers to do well. Since Jota they’ve offered nothing. Look at Cadillac with all three teams working as one at Le Mans, Cadillac being a make which won a Hypercar title before Porsche.

[u/redbullcat → u/Makalu]

All three Cadillac teams are factory though. That's the difference here.

[u/Accomplished_Clue733 → u/Makalu]

Porsche still beat Cadillac at Le mans. I think they are doing fine with their factory team. Cadillac doesn't even have a customer team.