Even before stepping in, it’s easy to see that the Porsche Penske Motorsport garage at the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans has an ant farm-like vibe. People walking at a determined pace are coming and going, Porsche-branded ATVs towing trailers with racing tires stacked high honk their way through the crowd, all while fans decked out in Porsche Motorsport attire bake in the sun like statues, hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite racing driver. And for good reason, Roger Penske employs some of the best in the business.
A security guard supervises the entrance to the garage throughout the entire weekend, and authorized visitors must check in by signing a digital waiver in exchange for a plastic badge before entering for the first time. Once inside, what you see largely depends on where you go and what’s happening on the track. The atmosphere ranges from cramped to open, from frenzied to calm, and from dark to well-lit. There’s no music or anything resembling entertainment: It’s all racing, all the time. Racing is a business, especially for this global organization, which competes in the world’s biggest racing series like NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA, and of course, WEC.
The Porsche complex is much bigger than you might assume, too; it’s like a small town in there. The room that’s closest to the entrance is where Porsche stores three spare battery packs for its 963 Hypercars (one per car). It’s roped off, only people who have a special accreditation are allowed to go near the high-voltage packs, and everyone on the team hopes that the batteries will stay in that room for the entire race. Replacing one takes about 45 minutes, making it one of the more labor-intensive operations that you can perform in the pits.
“The mindset of this race is that you don’t give up,” Timo Bernhard, who drove a Porsche 919 Hybrid to victory in 2017 with Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber, tells me. “It’s not a short race; It’s not an F1 race. If you have a problem, you’re not out of the race immediately.”
He’s speaking from experience. In 2017, his car made an unexpected pit stop due to a problem with the front axle’s electric motor. Replacing the part took a little over an hour, and the 919 returned to the track in 54th place, 19 laps behind the leader, with over half of the race remaining. Earning a spot on the podium (let alone the top spot) must have looked impossible, yet that exact car went on to win the race.
I lost track of how many people walked in and out of the Porsche compound in the time that it took for Bernhard to explain why it’s worth hauling around three spare battery packs. He then led me into the next room, which he jokingly described as “a Porsche supermarket.” It’s where the team stores many of the smaller parts that can fail during a day-long race, such as oil lines and coolant hoses, as well as any liquid that a repair could require, including engine oil and brake cleaner.
Porsche keeps three spare transaxles in a separate room, and something immediately caught my eye as I walked in. There’s a big, silver-colored ring around each axle. Did the thing just get married? Nope, not quite. It’s a sensor that lets FIA officials measure the car’s power output in real time to ensure no one cheats. It’s mandatory on every car, of course, and if it fails, it needs to be replaced immediately.
Tires are closely monitored as well. In the Hypercar category, each car is allowed 14 sets of slick tires per race (rain tires are unlimited). Every tire is tracked via a QR code, so Porsche and FIA officials can quickly access parameters like its mileage and other variables. “It’s a huge part of the organization,” Bernhard points out.
Interestingly, Porsche doesn’t own the tires that the 963 races with; it pretty much leases them from Michelin. During the race, a dedicated Michelin engineer examines every single tire before they’re mounted on the car, and then re-examines them once they’re taken off after a stint. The engineer measures wear and tear and marks anything alarming or unusual with chalk; they then label the tire and take pictures for documentation purposes. It’s not just Porsche: There’s a Michelin engineer in every garage at Le Mans. The one working for Porsche doesn’t exchange intel with the one working for BMW, obviously, but at the end of the race, the used tires all go back to Michelin’s headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
The tires take up a tremendous amount of space in the pits. On the other hand, brake parts from AP Racing are few and far between. The 963 uses giant carbon-ceramic rotors designed to last for the full race, which is wild to think about when you consider the heat that they’re subjected to. The 963 is a hybrid, so the brake energy recuperation system extends the rotors’ life. The pads are changed once per race.
The Porsche complex is massive, and there are multiple levels to it. Upstairs, there’s a place for mechanics and the management team to relax, and an office where at least a dozen people have their eyeballs glued to computer screens. I don’t think they even noticed I was there; that’s how important their job is, and how seriously they take it. They’re tracking live data sent by each car and looking for any irregularity, however small it may be. It’s always the tiniest details that can indicate that a potentially serious problem is brewing. If needed, there’s a second team of engineers located in Weissach, Germany, where Porsche develops all of its race cars, that’s a phone call away.
Like most things nowadays, Le Mans is largely run by computers, but there’s one task that hasn’t been digitalized. Keeping the cars running in tip-top shape takes arduous, physical labor. Each 963 has its own pit crew tasked with servicing it during the entire race—a big job considering anywhere from 30 to 40 pit stops are performed if everything goes according to plan. We’ve talked before about the art of the Le Mans pit stop, and how it’s something that needs to be seen up close to be believed. The crews can rest in their downtime, but they’re never far from the pits and always ready to jump into action in case something goes wrong.
But what about the drivers? Porsche Penske Motorsport entered three cars in Le Mans this year, the No. 4, 5, and 6, so that’s a total of nine drivers, plus the reserve drivers. When they’re not in the car, they’re out and about. Some watch the race on the numerous televisions scattered throughout the pits, while others walk to what Porsche refers to as Container City. It looks like those temporary structures you often see on construction sites, and it’s a few feet away from the pits, so the drivers can try to disconnect for a while while staying close to the heart of the action. Inside, the drivers can change, get a massage, see a doctor, and relax in a private space. Odds are you won’t find them sleeping, though.
“You can never relax; I can tell you from my own experience,” Bernhard told me. “This is the hardest part, to get a little bit of rest, because when you share a car with other drivers, you never really relax. You’re always looking at where your car is and what’s happening. You can never really disconnect from the race. You’re lying in your bed, but you cannot sleep.”
Each driver’s mileage throughout the race varies, literally and metaphorically. Most driver stints range from right under an hour to up to two hours. Regardless of how each team breaks shifts up, per the rules, a driver cannot race longer than four hours in six hours.
Bernhard tells me that, when he raced at Le Mans, the massage room was “almost like a wellness weekend.” For him, it was a more effective way to soothe his mind and body. Racing for such a long time, on little to no sleep, requires a great deal of concentration. You’re in a cramped cockpit enduring a wide selection of vibrations, bumps, G-forces, and heat. “It’s a better way to relax your mind than trying to sleep,” he sums up.
Food and drinks are at their disposal in the pits, in Container City, and in a hospitality area about 100 yards from the garage. You’re at the wrong track if you’re imagining that the pilots are treated like royalty, with private chefs catering to them throughout the race. They eat from the same buffet as journalists, PR staff, and execs, though I noticed a bowl of chopped avocado labeled “Drivers Only.”
The logistics of racing at Le Mans are mind-blowing. The entire setup, including Container City, takes about three weeks to set up. There are over 100 people on location to support the Porsche team, and I can’t even imagine what it costs to run the show. And yet, in the end, it’s all worth it, even if you don’t win.
“It’s like our Olympic Games. You prioritize this weekend,” Bernhard said.
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Ronan is a contributing writer for The Drive, covering breaking news, cool builds, and anything in between.
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