SPA, Belgium - Marc Lieb will be on standby for Porsche at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans should the German manufacturer require a late replacement for the endurance classic.
Lieb won his first Le Mans title with Porsche last year en route to the FIA World Endurance Championship drivers’ title alongside Neel Jani and Romain Dumas.
The German driver was dropped from its LMP1 line-up for 2017 and relocated within Porsche motorsport, and will take up an unofficial reserve role at Le Mans, with his first test in the updated 919 Hybrid car set to take place next weekend.
“As we know, officially in the regulations we don’t have a spare driver, it is not allowed. Obviously we have a very strong guy ready in the background for us which is Marc Lieb who could jump in if anything could happen in the Le Mans weekend,” Porsche LMP1 team principal Andreas Seidl said.
“We will put Marc Lieb into the car in Aragon for some stints to have him ready again. It’s also great from his side to be available for us.
“He has a new job at Porsche, he’s very busy there, but he knows the way around at Le Mans, so it’s a perfect solution for us also.”