Yifei Ye announced as Hertz Team JOTA driver for 2023
First piece falls into place for JOTA Hypercar driver line-up
Chinese driver Yifei Ye has been the first driver to be announced for Hertz Team JOTA for their 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign with the Porsche 963 Hypercar.
22-year-old Ye has enjoyed an excellent debut campaign in in both GT and prototype endurance racing in 2022, where he won both the Asian Le Mans Series and European Le Mans Series.
The Chinese driver returned to the Middle East earlier this season, racing for Herberth Motorsport in a Porsche 911 GT3 R, securing a podium finish in the final event. He continued his diverse 2022 programme with a return to prototypes for the European Le Mans Series, taking a pole position and three podiums for COOL Racing to cap off an impressive year.
Previously, Ye came agonisingly close to winning the LMP2 class at Le Mans in 2021 but was denied on the penultimate lap when his WRT Oreca-Gibson ground to a halt.
“Just over a year ago I was announced as the Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Selected Driver and now I’ll be joining Hertz Team JOTA for 2023, racing in a Porsche 963,” said Ye.
“It’s a dream come true for me to be able to fight for overall victory at Le Mans in a Porsche. With such a successful team in endurance racing, I believe we stand a good chance to fight at the top. I’m very excited for the challenge and I can’t wait to get started. A big thanks to Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific and Porsche Motorsport for making it happen.”
