Andre Lotterer has had an incredibly successful career in endurance racing, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans and taking World Endurance Championship titles.
The German driver hit the ground running in 2012 after spending a lot of time in Japan, racing in series such as Formula Nippon and Super GT.
Lotterer was immediately competitive when WEC was established in 2012 and he joined Audi in the LMP1 class for the season.
They were the dominant team and beat Toyota after Peugeot withdrew from the championship before the first round of the season.
Lotterer won two races, including his first victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which was followed by a win at Silverstone.
WEC is now much more competitive in the Hypercar era which started in 2023. Manufacturers such as Ferrari and Porsche have regularly challenged Toyota, which ended the LMP1 era as the top team.
After scoring points at every race this season with Porsche, Lotterer took his second top-tier WEC drivers’ championship alongside Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor.
The German explained to Autosport that the dynamic in WEC has changed over his career, and the paddock has different priorities.
Andre Lotterer admits you ‘thought you’d lost the season’ if you didn’t win Le Mans in the LMP1 era
The LMP1 era was far less competitive than the racing the Hypercar class gave the World Endurance Championship in 2024, and less attention was paid to the series.
Hypercar has attracted a lot of manufacturers as teams such as Cadillac are racing with their LMDh cars in the world championship and IMSA in North America.
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Lotterer finished fourth at Le Mans this season as Porsche didn’t have the ultimate speed to match Ferrari and Toyota, who battled for the win.
Yet the German explained that Le Mans now means less in relation to the championship title as the series is more competitive than in the LMP1 era.
He said: “I wouldn’t say it means more to me, it’s just different. But we were quite dominant in 2012 and there wasn’t that much competition if I am honest.
“Previously in LMP1, Le Mans was the thing everyone wanted. it was all about Le Mans back then.”
He added that early in his WEC career “you kind of thought you’d lost the season” if you didn’t win Le Mans.
Andre Lotterer won’t return to race for Porsche in Hypercar next season
Porsche Penske Motorsport won’t have Lotterer in their ranks next season after the 42-year-old lost his seat, despite helping to win the drivers’ title this year.
There will be no replacement for the German driver, either, as Porsche are downsizing the driver line-ups to just two rather than three full-time pilots.
Lotterer isn’t the only one facing uncertainty in WEC over the winter, either, as Mick Schumacher has ongoing talks about his future at Alpine after debuting in the Hypercar class in 2024.