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Porsche's newest factory Hypercar driver, Julien Andlauer, told Only Endurance that his promotion to the senior factory squad will be the biggest challenge of his racing career.
'I'm just really looking forward to getting started. I think this is the biggest challenge of my life that I have so far,' the Frenchman said.
'Looking back at the last few years, my journey with Porsche started eight years ago already. It's great to see that I evolved in the family, we grew up and got better every year.
'To be able to step up as a factory driver a couple of years later, at the moment for sure the most prestigious programme, is great. I'm super excited to finally be there.'
Andlauer became a Porsche 'young professional' driver for the 2018 season. He raced with the Dempsey-Proton team in GTE-Am until the end of the 2023 season, then moved up to Hypercar for 2024, again with Proton Competition.
In just his third Hypercar race at Spa-Francorchamps, he impressed by making multiple passes at Eau Rouge and Raidillon, and setting the race's fastest lap, a 2:06.459.
Analysing the top 20% average lap times, the Frenchman was faster than several Porsche Penske drivers and was within two-tenths of a second of Kevin Estre, the fastest Porsche driver on average.
'To be performant in motorsport is easy,' he said when asked about what made that race at Spa special.
'To do a good quali is easy, to have a good stint is easy. But to put it all together, to be performant in quali and then the whole race and to succeed with the trophy, is very difficult,' he said, starting off his answer.
'I think that [race at Spa] was proof, because at the end of the day we had a good quali. We had very good preparation. That was the first time, and I think almost the only time last year, we had a full testing programme done in practice, without any issue on the car. That brought us to the race with clear numbers.
'Then we had good car balance, good objectives, a good starting position,' he continued.
'When everything is setting up well, you go into the race with more confidence, and you can just deliver the best performance from yourself.
'And it's always easy to perform whenever everything goes well and you have a good strategy, car, etc.
'So at the end of the day, I just did my job, similar to the other days. But I think I just had everything working very well around me and the team did a mega job to deliver a good car and good performance. So then I just did my best,' he concluded.
However, for 2025, the Frenchman has been promoted from the customer Proton squad to the senior, Penske-run factory team. It's something Andlauer has been working towards for a while, and means he'll team up with Michael Christensen and countryman Mathieu Jaminet in the #5 machine.
Phil Oakley
'Mathieu's a Frenchman obviously, we've raced together a few times. We got to see each other many times on the track, but also off track a few times. Racing together, we have a good basis in terms of how we work, but also in the car and out of the car, it always matched.
'With Michael, I've always been quite close to his success. He won Le Mans the year I joined, in 2018, and I won in GTE-Am too.
'So I always looked at him and looked at what he was doing. I was a reserve driver for the GTE programme a few times too, so I was close to what they were doing in the programme.
'It gave me good confidence — that's going to be my teammate, he's super professional, super quick, has a lot of experience in factory programmes, but also in PPM [Porsche Penske Motorsport] because it's his third year in the programme.'
34-year-old Christensen has raced for Porsche since 2012, when he joined the German manufacturer's young driver programme. He was a crucial part of the GTE Pro effort from 2015 onwards, winning the title in the 2018-2019 WEC season, plus the Le Mans win in 2018.
He moved up to the Hypercar programme in 2023, and while he's yet to win a race overall, has proved his worth.
Jaminet, meanwhile, mirrored Christensen's Porsche history in terms of GT racing, except the 30-year-old raced in IMSA instead of WEC. He'll be doing the longer races with Andlauer and Christensen this year, at Qatar, Le Mans, and Bahrain, alongside racing full-time in PPM's IMSA programme.
'It is, for sure, different,' says Andlauer, on racing with two drivers in a Hypercar, rather than the regular three.
'I had the opportunity to do it two times, together with Neel [Jani] in Spa and Sao Paulo. It has some good sides, especially because you're quite limited with the testing, or you're having little issues during the race week, it gives you the opportunity to have a little more driving time, a bit more focused on your testing programme.
'When you jump in the race, you feel a bit more prepared than when you've got three drivers, where you don't have so much free practice time before the race.
Tim Fullbrook
'The other thing is, once you're in the race, you're in the mindset of, OK, I'm going to be the starting driver. That's my objective. Or, I'm going to be the middle driver, or I'm going to finish the race.
'So when you've got three drivers, you jump in the car, you do your stint and it's clear what you have to do. But if you start and then finish the race, you're gonna have to change this mindset a little bit. Maybe from smooth side of surviving at the start, to beast mode at the end of the race.
'It's not a downside, but you have to manage yourself this way.'
After his impressive season last year with Proton, Andlauer said he was told about his promotion prior to Bahrain. With the season approaching, the pressure is building, he said.
'You feel it coming more and more,' he said, laughing.
'So maybe the pressure start to kick in a little bit, but it was the case already last year. I would say for sure the pressure is going to be different, a bit more pressure and maybe more responsibilities as well. A strong management behind.
'[I'll be] carrying a bit more than only me and the team on my shoulders, when I'm in the car, because you're representing I would say the best manufacturer or car brand in the world.
'But when you put the helmet on, you keep the brain connected. You just focus on what's you need to do, your objectives and what you're here for. So I would say I'll do my best to transform it into good pressure.'
Tim Fullbrook
And what of his expectations going into the year? Like most racing drivers, the Frenchman says he's taking the year race-by-race.
'It's super difficult to have objectives without having set a wheel on the track with the new team,' he said.
'I'm new in the in the team, and we have a new engineer, so there's a couple of heads that changes a little bit on car #5.
'So maybe the the structure is not going to be as solid as the #6 car, because I mean they they've had the same conditions for the last two years, and they were very successful at this.
'This doesn't mean we're going to be worse, or we should expect to be not as performant or organised as them, but we will really take the time to make it, let's say, in a very professional way.'
'Objectives... trying to get solid routines already from the first weekend, [and] to be able to perform and to score very good points for manufacturers' and drivers championships.'
'I'm not even sure if we'll be able to step into the top five, or top 10. Or, maybe we're going to be very performant. Maybe the car's going to be amazing, and we're going to feel really good in it.
'So it's a bit of an unknown area I would say. So we'll do our best. We'll try to score good points; if we can get a podium or win, we'll for sure jump on the opportunity.
'But I think we're going to have a bit more of a clear answer after The Prologue.'
The Prologue, WEC's two days of pre-season testing, is fast approaching, taking place on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd February at Losail International Circuit in Qatar. Stay tuned to Only Endurance — we'll have full analysis and reports from the sessions.
The first race of the season, 1812km Qatar, takes place the following Friday, 28th February, with the race starting at 14:00 local time.
Feature image: Nick Dungan / Drew Gibson Photography
Mohammed Rehman
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