
911 Turbo S Coupé
911 Turbo sets new reference values for dynamics and fuel consumption

911 Turbo S Coupé

Patrick Pilet, Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz, Joerg Bergmeister (l-r), Porsche AG Team Manthey


Patrick Pilet, Romain Dumas, Joerg Bergmeister, Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz,Timo Bernhard (l-r), Porsche AG Team Manthey

Maria Sharapova…global ambassodor to Porsche
Stuttgart. Tennis megastar Maria Sharapova has taken on a new role: Effective immediately, the 26-year-old world class player will be representing the sports car manufacturer, Porsche AG, as brand ambassador.
The cooperation is initially signed for three years and involves a global communications campaign. The athlete is already very familiar with the vehicles from Zuffenhausen: As last year´s winner of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Sharapova not only took home prize money, but also a white 911 Carrera S Cabriolet.
“Maria Sharapova is an exceptional athlete. She combines top performance in her sports with elegance and power. These are precisely the qualities that are embroiled in our sports cars”, as Matthias Mueller, CEO of Porsche AG, explained in today’s introduction of the partnership. According to Mueller it was not easy to find the right person to be Porsche´s ambassador.
Maria Sharapova did not really have to think twice: “This is a really special day for me. I have had the privilege to be associated with some of the best brands in the world, but now to be partners with Porsche, is such an amazing honor”, she explained during her presentation in Stuttgart.
Maria Sharapova was born in the Western Siberian town of Nyagan on 18 April, 1987. She moved to Bradenton on the Gulf Coast of Florida (USA), when she was seven years old. Two years later she was accepted at the world-renowned Tennis Academy of coach Nick Bollettieri. In 2004, at the age of 17, she won her first Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon, the third-youngest player ever.
This feat was followed by titles in the other three Grand Slam tournaments: U.S. Open 2006, Australian Open 2008, and French Open 2012. To date, Maria Sharapova has won a total of 28 singles titles, including last year´s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, the WTA Championships in 2004, and the silver medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Along with her involvement in the “Maria Sharapova Foundation”, she is also active as ambassador of the United Nations Development Program.
SOURCE: Porsche AG Media – Corporate Communication
“I particularly appreciate about the two is their competence as test drivers. For this reason the pair is already closely integrated in the development program of our new car and will embark on an intensive test schedule from the middle of this year”, says Fritz Enzinger, director LMP1-project.

Porsche 911 RSR, Porsche AG Team Manthey- Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz, Romain Dumas
Wolfgang Hatz, Member of the Executive Board – Research and Development:
“That was the first race for the new car and the new team. The organization of the squad worked well. Of course, there are areas where we have room for improvement, but it’s like a football team, we first have to get everything running smoothly.Technically, everything worked on the 911 RSR apart from a one small thing which we will have fixed by the next race.
As far as the performance is concerned, we still have room for improvement. Naturally we also have to work on the car, it has a little too much oversteer.
But all in all I regard it as a positive weekend. It wouldn’t have been good if the car had experienced lots of problems, but that was not the case. We saw that the 911 RSR can turn consistently quick lap times over the race distance. Now if we do our homework, I think we’ll finish further up the field at the next races.”
“Both new 911 RSR reached the flag at their race debut, and there were no major technical problems. With a new team, of course there is still some fine-tuning to be done, that’s normal. We are looking forward to the next race and hope that the car will make another step forward there.”
“We gained many important insights in the race. The car underlined its potential. Now we just need to work a little more on that.”
“We were looking good in the fast corners, but we need to sort out the oversteer exiting the slow corners. But our engineers should be able to correct this by the next race. If so, the podium is within reach.”
“An interesting race. We learned a lot. On the straights we are a little slower than our opponents which makes overtaking very difficult. Still, there are many positives things we can take from this race.”
“That wasn’t our dream result. But we’ve learned a lot this weekend. The conditions were not the easiest, because we had no time to practice on the dry track for setting up the car.”
“It’s bad luck that we lost more than two laps, but the mechanics did a good job. In any case, we’ve found a good basis to work on and we are optimistic for the rest of the season.”
“Heading towards Le Mans that was a very valuable race for us. Our performance wasn’t too bad. Without the front axle problem a podium place would have been within reach.”
Race result
GTE-Pro class
1. Turner/Mücke/Senna (GB/D/BRA), Aston Martin Vantage, 171 laps
2. Kobayashi/Vilander (J/SF), Ferrari F458 Italia, 170
3. Dalla Lana/Macowiecki/Lamy (CAN/F/P), Aston Martin Vantage, 170
4. Lieb/Lietz/Dumas (D/A/F), Porsche 911 RSR, 170
5. Bruni/Fisichella (I/I), Ferrari F458 Italia, 170
6. Bergmeister/Pilet/Bernhard (D/F/D), Porsche 911 RSR, 168
GTE-Am class
1. Nygaard/Poulsen/Simonsen (DEN/DEN/DEN), Aston Martin Vantage, 169 laps
2. Bornhauser/Canal/Rees (FRA/FRA/BRA), Chevrolet Corvette, 166
3. Potolicchio/Aguas/Peter (I/VEN/A), Ferrari F458 Italia, 165
4. Goethe/Hall/Campbell-Walter (D/GB/GB), Aston Martin Vantage, 165
5. Ried/Roda/Ruberti (D/I/I), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 165
7. Narac/Bourret/Tandy (F/F/GB), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 163
The World Endurance Championship
In the World Endurance Championship, sports prototypes and GT vehicles start in four classes: LMGTE-Pro, LMGTE-Am, LMP1 and LMP2. They all compete together in one race but are classified separately.
SOURCE: World Endurance Championship Porsche AG Press Media Database