Watch out for Porsche!

Aussie Mark Webber’s Porsche team is expected to come on strong in the 2015 World Endurance Championship according to a driver who should know – world champion Anthony Davidson.

The Toyota Racing star, who won the drivers’ championship with team-mate Sebastien Buemi in 2014, is predicting a big leap forward in performance from the Porsche squad, which nearly won the Le Mans 24-hour in its first season in the blue-ribbon LMP1 category.

“They (Porsche) say they are going to win and in a way we are the ones with the target on our back,” said Davidson. “If you listen to the vibes that are coming from Porsche we have a tough job this year, but we are going to throw everything at it we can to defend the title and try and win Le Mans.”

Davidson and Buemi will reunite to defend their world championship, with Japanese speedster Kazuki Nakajima joining them. The second Toyota TS040 V8 hybrid prototype will be driven by Stephane Sarrazin, Alex Wurz and Mike Conway.  

Confirmation of Toyota’s 2015 plans and driver line-ups for the WEC were confirmed on Friday in Tokyo, where a return to the World Rally Championship in 2017 was also announced.

Both the WEC and WRC programs are being run by Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) out of Cologne in Germany. While Friday’s announcement only covered 2015, motoring.com.au has been told by insiders that the WEC campaign is assured out to at least 2017.

Toyota Racing will be looking to defend the manufacturers’ title it also won in 2014 – Toyota’s first circuit racing world championship – and break-through in attempt number 17 to win its first ever Le Mans 24-hour, which is by far the most prestigious and well know event on the eight-round WEC calendar.

Apart from Porsche 919 Hybrid V4, Toyota will also have to face up to Audi’s latest diesel prototype and newcomers Nissan, which this week announced it would be entering a radical front-wheel drive V6 turbo GT-R LM.

Porsche has already shown off the significantly updated 919 it will campaign in 2015, with former F1 star Webber in his second year as the star driver.

“I think they [Porsche] surprised even themselves with how strong they were straight away in 2014,” said Davidson. “Pole position at Spa in just their second race was pretty unbelievable – we certainly couldn’t believe it.

“That kind of speed in qualifying continued on all season for them, and their race pace started to improve slowly as the year went on. So naturally you would expect them to make a big step forward this year.”

Davidson insisted the Toyota Racing squad was feeling no additional pressure to win at Le Mans in 2015. In 2014 Nakajima had qualified on pole and was leading the race in the 14th hour when a sensor fire ended his car’s chances.

Davidson, Buemi and Nicolas Lapierre fought back to third place behind two Audis after an early crash in wet weather.

“After winning the world championship last year there is only one more step that you can achieve in sports car racing and that is the single day in Le Mans,” said Davidson.

“But to put pressure on yourself to win such a fickle race — although it’s got such prestige attached to it — is a bit silly because it comes to you. You don’t win Le Mans, it comes to you.

“Like Kazuki proved last year… hands down victory was his, and it was taken away from him through no fault of his own and no fault of the team. That’s just bad luck, a sensor setting on fire that’s not even manufactured by the team. We have never seen that before or since, it’s just that type of race.”

While Davidson identified Porsche as the big improvers in the 2015 WEC, he made it clear Audi would start Le Mans favourites. No surprise considering the German luxury brand has won the race 14 times in its last 16 starts.

“Audi are clearly the ones to beat at Le Mans, they know how to win that race,” he said. “They own that place. And so it’s for us to try and topple them off the mantle for that.”

Buemi, meanwhile, was philosophical about TMG’s failed bid for a budget increase to allow the team to run three cars at Le Mans as Audi does, the theory being more cars means more chances to win the race. Porsche is also expected to run a third car in 2015, after debuting with two last year.

“They say many times (TMG) with the budget they have it is better to do two cars properly with a lot of testing and arrive there very well prepared rather than trying to go with three cars and having to do a lot less testing and the resources,” the former Toro Rosso F1 driver said.

“I understand the decision, although we all know that coming with three cars — if you do it properly — is an advantage.”