What the factory team failed to achieve in the Hypercar class with fourth place as its best result was rectified by the customer team in the new LMGT3 category: Manthey gave Porsche victory at the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Meuspath-based racing team triumphed for the fifth time after 1999, 2013, 2018 and 2022 in the GT class of the endurance classic.
The Austrian Richard Lietz and his teammates Morris Shuring and Yasser Shahin led the #91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R to victory after 281 laps. At the finish, the lead over the second-placed #31 BMW M4 GT3 from WRT was one lap. Final driver Lietz once again proved to be a ‘real bank’ in Le Mans and achieved his fifth class victory in the 18th (!) start. For his teammates it was the first.
Five-time Le Mans winner Lietz on BMW duel: “Rain brings blessings”
The #91 911 led the race in the GT3 class for 111 laps. The sister car with the starting number #92 (Alex Malykhin, Joel Sturm, Klaus Bachler) also collected 55 laps in the lead in the field of 23 GT3 cars, but fell back a few laps due to a technical problem in the area of the shift drum and ended up in 14th place. Curiously, the two Manthey crews are in the WEC World Championship ranking tied at the top with 75 points each!
“We laid the foundation for victory with very good strategic decisions,” said the now five-time Le Mans winner Lietz to Motorsport-Magazin.com“The mixed conditions were an advantage for us. It would have been difficult in the dry. We wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the speed of the BMW, especially on the straights. But luckily the rain came. And rain brings blessings!”
Manthey Insurance named Richard Lietz
In changeable weather, all top teams in the GT3 group naturally relied on their respective platinum drivers in the final hours. WEC regulations stipulate that each team must consist of a bronze, a silver and a professional driver. The 40-year-old Lietz sat behind the wheel of the 911 for 117 of the 281 laps and later took a deep breath in the Porsche hospitality.
“It was very important to me that Richie got in at the end,” said Manthey CEO Nicki Raeder, who worked as a race engineer on the winning Lietz GTE Porsche at Le Mans in 2013, to Motorsport-Magazin.com. “It is an insurance that the car will arrive and still be fast.”
Why the Le Mans victory is twice as worthwhile for Manthey
Raeder was able to get over the fact that the Manthey class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans was not quite as much in focus in view of Ferrari’s overall victory: “The effort involved in the hypercars is greater, but you need smart people in both classes. There are certainly not 300,000 people coming here for the GT cars. But if 60,000 of them are interested in us, then we can be happy to use this platform.”
For the reigning DTM champions from Manthey, the latest 24-hour victory should pay off in the long term despite the immense costs involved: On the one hand, the not exactly cheap Manthey kits for road-going Porsches can be sold even better on the international market with the label of a genuine Le Mans winner. On the other hand, such successes attract extremely wealthy bronze drivers who cover a significant part of the costs. In keeping with the NASCAR motto ‘Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday’.
Raeder, who in the past had estimated the cost of using a single GT3 Porsche in the WEC at four to five million euros per season: “In the past, it was factory operations, now it is customer sport operations. We financed this through the drivers and sponsors. That is something completely different.” Porsche Motorsport is primarily involved in the World Endurance Championship with parts support.
“A real bronze rider, not a fake bronze rider”
The experienced Lietz also knew how relevant the Le Mans victory and a possible win in the LMGT3 World Championship is for Manthey: “We are in a series where you need bronze drivers. The rules are the same for everyone. With Yasser (Shahin) we have a top bronze driver. A real one, not a fake bronze driver. That’s what we’re supposed to do… He brings sponsors with him and has the desire to win Le Mans and the WEC. Hopefully he’s happy and will drive with us for a long time to come.”
Lietz, who has been driving Porsche racing cars for over 20 years and won the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in 2018, was not so happy that the GT class is not in the spotlight in Le Mans because of the prototypes: “All manufacturers wanted to win here. We did it. I have the utmost respect for the Hypercar guys, but winning in the GT class is actually the same effort.”
Lietz explained: “When I started in Le Mans, Audi was the dominant LMP1 manufacturer. They did a great job, but sometimes drove four cars against Pescarolo. We had tough battles in the GT with the large number of manufacturers. A GT victory was often harder to fight for than the overall victory. Of course, it gets lost in the media, everyone talks about the overall victory, all good. But believe me: someone who only drives GT is not easy to beat. They are professionals.”
