Le Mans-winning Kiwi driver Earl Bamber could be set to join countryman Brendon Hartley at Porsche in the top echelon of the World Endurance Championship.
In his second season as a works driver for the powerhouse German manufacturer in the US, Bamber has been mentioned by team principal Andreas Seidl as one of two “obvious” candidates should a spot open up in their six-driver LMP1 line-up for 2017 as speculated.
The other is Englishman Nick Tandy, who teamed up with the 26-year-old Whanganui native and German Formula One driver Nico Hulkenburg to take out the coveted 24 Hours of Le Mans title for Porsche last year.
“For sure, once we replace someone in the lineup, it’s clear that the first two obvious guys are Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber,” toldSportscar365.
“They have shown what they’ve been able to do. If you can do that like this with just the preparation of Spa and then go to Le Mans and win it, they deserve it. But we will have to see when and how.”
Porsche have two 919 Hybrids in the LMP1 category this year, with defending world champions Hartley, Australian Mark Webber and German Timo Bernhard in the No 1 car and the trio of Neel Jani (Switzerland), Marc Lieb (Germany) and Romain Dumas (France) piloting the No 2.
The latter led the overall standings heading into the sixth of nine rounds in Texas this weekend, while Hartley, Webber and Bernhard have climbed into fifth after bouncing back from a poor start to their title defence with wins at the previous two races in Mexico and Germany.
Seidl confirmed no decision on potential drivers changes would be made until the end of this year or early next year, but there are indications up to two changes could take take place.
Former Australian Formula One driver Webber is yet to lock in his involvement, while Sportscar365 said Dumas and Lieb were reportedly under scrutiny.
“It’s fully open,” Seidl said. “We will do it like every year, after the season we’ll analyse in detail and then make the call at the end of the year or in January on what we’ll do.
“So far, we’re pretty happy what we’ve done the last three years. I think we benefited a lot from keeping the same guys in the car and building the experience together as a team.”
A two-time runner-up in the New Zealand-based Toyota Racing Series, Bamber announced his name as a future star on the world motorsport scene when he won back-to-back Porsche Carrera Cup Asia crowns in 2013 and 2014.
Later in 2014 he took out the Porsche Supercup, earning him a factory contract for the 2015 season and leading to a stunning win on debut at Le Mans.
Meanwhile, Hartley, Webber and Bernhard have qualified third for the Six Hours of the Circuit of the Americas on Saturday (Sunday 10am start NZ time).
Jani, Lieb and Dumas were fourth fastest, with Porsche’s main rivals Audi claiming both spots on the front of the grid.
“It was a tricky one,” Hartley said. “The track changed quite a lot since [free practice three] and we were a bit surprised by the balance of the car.
“Both Timo and I had pretty scruffy laps. I had traffic on my first, which was annoying, and then I didn’t really get the most out of my second attempt. Now we have to scratch our heads a bit to find out were we lost the balance we were happy with earlier. However, we started from P4 in Mexico, where we won, and we were happy with our race pace here in free practice.”
The 10th round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is being held at the same track this weekend , with Bamber and Frenchman Fred Makowiecki qualifying fourth in the GTLM class.
