As Porsche announce their prototype exit for Formula E, what next for the Le Mans 24 Hours and LMP1?

Porsche have followed Audi's lead to end their LMP1 programme and focus on the all-electrical series, leaving Le Mans' premiere class in a crisis

Porsche have won three back-to-back Le Mans 24 Hours (Getty)

Porsche have become the latest manufacturer to turn its back on prototype racing in favour of Formula E that leaves the World Endurance Championship and, in particular, the Le Mans 24 Hours, on its knees.

One of the highlights of the motorsport calendar, the Le Mans 24 Hours faces the prospect of going into the 2018 event with just one factory LMP1 team in the form of Toyota, with the future of the only other LMP1 team, ByKolles Racing, looks far from secure.

After losing Audi at the end of 2016 after 17 dominant years in sportscar racing, Le Mans now stands to lose defending champions Porsche at the end of the current season, with the German marque deciding that a new approach is needed despite winning the last three Le Mans 24 Hours.

This year’s event saw just one LMP1 car finish inside the top seven, with LMP2 cars filling the positions behind the race-winning Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber, and the prospect of a 24 Hours without an LMP1 class now appears to be a very realistic threat.

The decision comes in a new approach being taken by leading factory teams, with Mercedes-Benz also announcing a radical shake-up in order to join Formula E. The company will continue to run its dominant Formula 1 outfit, but will end its DTM [German Touring Cars] commitment in order to join the all-electrical series from 2019 along with Porsche. BMW are already slated to join a year earlier in 2018, although they will coincide this with a return to Le Mans in the GT category where Porsche will also continue to compete as a factory team.

“This realignment of motorsport is derived from the direction set out for the company in Porsche Strategy 2025, which will see Porsche develop a combination of pure GT vehicles and fully electric sports cars, such as the first fully battery-powered Mission E road car,” read a Porsche statement explaining the decision.

Plans are already underway to build a two-car team capable of competing in Formula E, which attempts to bring motorsport to the fans by competing on city street circuits using electrical power, the only series of its kind that also boasts full FIA backing.

Porsche's exit means the winners of the last 18 Le Mans 24 Hours will be absent in 2018 (Getty)

“Entering Formula E and achieving success in this category are the logical outcomes of our Mission E,” said Michael Steiner, member of the executive board for research and development at Porsche AG. “The growing freedom for in-house technology developments makes Formula E attractive to us.

“Porsche is working with alternative, innovative drive concepts. For us, Formula E is the ultimate competitive environment for driving forward the development of high-performance vehicles in areas such as environmental friendliness, efficiency and sustainability.”

The news means that Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and BMW will join regular competitors Renault, Audi, Jaguar and Citroen, as well as Indian team Mahindra, Chinese outfit NextEV NIO, Americans Penske Autosport and French manufacturer Venturi Automotive.

Porsche will retain its current driver line-up in other areas of the team (Getty)

The main hope for the huge boost in Formula E’s competitors is to improve the standard of racing seen in the series, which has long been its largest criticism since its inception in 2014, but this will evidently come at a cost.

Just two years ago, Le Mans was able to boast the inclusion of Audi, Porsche, Toyota, Rebellion and the ill-fated Nissan project in its LMP1 class, while Peugeot were known to be weighing up a serious return if costs were lowered by race organisers the ACO. But after the prototype exodus, what’s stopping Toyota from also leaving the sport next year if, as expected, they finally get the elusive Le Mans victory under their belt given that they will face next-to-no opposition with a substantially larger budget than any privateer teams that choose to step up.

The factory 911 RSR programme will continue in the GTE category (Getty)

It looks like LMP2 racing will eventually become the flagship of the Le Mans 24 Hours, and while it is the category that has provided the most cars and the closest racing for quite some time, it will not carry quite the same prestige as the LMP1 thoroughbreds.