Porsche will let the British team test the hybrid prototype on Wednesday at the Weissach test track as part of the handover.
Works driver Matt Campbell, who is part of the Porsche Penske Motorsport lineup in the IMSA, is expected to drive the first of four customer 963s produced for 2023.
The reigning LMP2 champions squad will have Porsche contracted Antonio Felix da Costa and Yifei Ye present for the test, but it is unclear whether they will drive. The testing rules in force in the WEC limit the car to a single hour of racing for the shakedown.
Jota will then take the car to the defunct Rosberg team’s workshops in Germany for final preparations ahead of its race debut at the Spa 6 Hours on 29 April, instead of returning to its base in the UK.
There will be no time for further testing before Belgium for the Hertz Team Jota car which will be driven by Da Costa, Ye and Will Stevens.
Jota co-owner Sam Hignett said: “With limited time available, there was no sense in returning to base and Dieter (Gass, the new team principal of the team’s Hypercar operation) proposed that we use the old rig by Team Rosberg”.
“We have a lot of testing planned before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, although the amount of testing will depend on the availability of parts. We need to make sure we go to Le Mans fully equipped.”
Something Porsche 963
Photo by: Jota Sport
The second of the four 963s for customers, the model from the American team JDC-Miller MotorSports, will be delivered on Thursday. The US team is working towards its debut in the IMSA series at the Laguna Seca race on May 14th.
The Proton Competition team, on the other hand, will later take delivery of the two 963s destined for a twin program in the WEC and IMSA, with a World Championship debut only scheduled for Monza and in the USA for the Road America round in August.
“It will all be new to us and we have to be very humble. We will take Spa as a test, we will learn as much as we can about the set-up, systems and operating procedures of this car,” Da Costa told Motorsport.com.
“Then it looks like we’ll do two tests before Le Mans and I think we’ll be able to get to the 24h with a good understanding of the vehicle.”
