Marc Lieb

Marc Lieb 2014

Marc Lieb (* 4. July 1980 in Stuttgart ) is a German racing driver , Porsche - a development engineer and FIA World Endurance Champion of the season in 2016 (along with his teammate Romain Dumas and Neel Jani ).

Life

Marc Lieb was born the son of a Porsche employee and took part in his first kart races at the age of five . Due to the constant lack of money, young Lieb had to be careful not to cause any accident damage at an early stage. One of the reasons for the later reliable journeys in long-distance sports. In parallel to his successes in motorsport, Lieb studied automotive engineering at the Esslingen University of Applied Sciences and received his diploma with his thesis on the subject of differential gear locks. After that, Lieb was not only a Porsche works driver, but also worked part-time in the Porsche performance department. During this time, he was involved in the development of the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid and Porsche 918 Spyder vehicles . With the 918 Spyder super sports car, he set a course record on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife in 2013 - under seven minutes with a road vehicle. Lieb has only been a professional racing driver for Porsche since 2012.

On November 25, 2016, Porsche announced that Marc Lieb and his team-mate Romain Dumas would leave the LMP1 team with the two Le Mans prototypes 919 Hybrid at the end of the 2016 season and take on new tasks within Porsche. This ended his long career as a Porsche works driver. Lieb is now to oversee the area of ​​international customer racing at Porsche as Le Mans winner and world champion.

Career

Success in motorsport

Marc Lieb was runner-up in the German ADAC Pop Kart Junior Championship in 1994. Two years later he switched to Formula Renault 1800 and later via Renault 2000 to the Formula Renault Cup. In three years he was able to win two races, qualify for pole position four times and in 1997 clinch the Formula Renault 1800 runner-up title.

Porsche one-make cup and FIA GT championship

In 2000 he switched from formula racing to GT vehicles and took part in the UPS Porsche Junior Team in the Porsche Carrera Cup and Porsche Pirelli Supercup , in which he finished three times in the top three in his first year. For the next two years he stayed in the two brands cup series and won a total of four races. In 2002 he became champion of the Porsche Carrera Cup. Due to his success in the one-make cup, he became a Porsche works driver in 2003 and moved to Freising Motorsport in the FIA GT championship . Together with Stéphane Ortelli , he won the N-GT championship title in his first season. He achieved three class wins, including with a Porsche 996 GT3 RS at the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race . After that, Lieb switched to the American Le Mans Series , but in 2004 he joined Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen at the championship run in Spa-Francorchamps. In the Porsche of Freisinger Motorsport, the driver trio finished third in the N-GT category. At the end of the year he also drove with Tim Sugden in the last two races in Dubai and Zhuhai. The results in the Porsche of Group M Racing were mixed with fourth place on the one hand and technical problems in Zhuhai on the other. In 2005, Lieb returned to the FIA ​​GT for an entire season and was now registered for Group M Racing with Mike Rockenfeller . In addition to the class win at the 24-hour race in Spa, Lieb also won the series GT2 drivers' championship. In 2006, Lieb turned completely to the Le Mans Endurance Series , which he was able to win in addition to his success in the FIA ​​series in 2005. As a Porsche works driver, he was selected for the first race of the new Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, which he was to drive together with Timo Bernhard and Pedro Lamy in the 2006 24-hour race in Spa. Since the car used by Manthey Racing was not yet homologated at the time , it competed in the G2 class specially designed for such situations. The driver trio finished the run in second place behind the sister vehicle. In the following two years he entered the 24-hour race again with a Porsche 997 GT3 RSR. In 2007 he won the GT2 category with the now homologated vehicle alongside Emmanuel Collard and Matteo Malucelli , and in 2008 he finished the race on the podium in its class. In addition, he drove for various teams in five other championship races. A podium place was denied to him except for the race at the Circuit Zolder 2008 with Markus Palttala .

American Le Mans Series

In 2004 he moved to the American Le Mans Series and was able to achieve two class wins with his teammate Romain Dumas . As a driver for Alex Job Racing , Lieb won the GT2 team championship together with the team's second Porsche 996 GT3 RSR and his colleagues. In addition, he started outside of his racing calendar at the 24-hour races of Daytona , which he finished as SGS class winner. In the next few years, Lieb mainly supported Flying Lizard Motorsports in selected championship races. He drove in the Sebring 12-hour race from 2006 to 2009 . In the four starts he finished the championship run twice on the podium and in 2008 as GT2 class winner together with Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler . But at the Petit Le Mans 2007 he was able to achieve a class win in the GT2 category for Flying Lizard Motorsports . His first outing for Farnbacher Loles Racing in Salt Lake City followed in 2009 , when he was only defeated in his class by fellow Porsche works driver Bergmeister and Patrick Long, who had previously been supported in Sebring . The result on the side of Wolf Henzler remained the best race result of the season for the team. At the end of the year in Road Atlanta, however, he competed again with Bergmeister and Long. The race, which had to be stopped after four hours due to heavy rain showers, only ended the team in fifth place in the GT2 category. In 2010, Lieb again competed in the longer championship races in Sebring and at the Petit Le Mans for Flying Lizard Motorsport. The trio finished both runs in the points, but could not build on the results in previous years.

Le Mans Series and other racing series

Vehicle from Lieb at Manthey Racing 2007

Marc Lieb in the Felbermayr-Proton Porsche at the 2008 Silverstone 1000 km race

Marc Lieb at the Spa-Francorchamps 1000 km race in 2010

In addition to his activities in the FIA-GT and ALMS, he took part in the 2004 Le Mans Endurance Series at irregular intervals . In 2005 he competed for a full season with Xavier Pompidou at Sebah Motorsport. At the end of the year Lieb, Pompidou and Sebah Motorsport won both the GT2 team and the drivers' championships. Since Sebah Motorsport withdrew from the Le Mans Series for the 2006 season, Marc Lieb switched to the Italian racing team Autorlando Sport and won the GT2 championship again. The following year he tried to complete the GT2 hat trick, finished three out of six races as class winner, but still lost the championship to Robert Bell . In addition, Lieb won the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring with his co-drivers Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Marcel Tiemann . He was able to repeat this victory in 2008 with the same driver line-up. In the preliminary tests for the Daytona endurance race of the Rolex Sports Car Series , which he finished as the winner of its vehicle category in 2003, he reached a place among the top ten GT vehicles, but could not take part in the race for health reasons. In the Le Mans Series he competed for another year at Felbermayr-Proton and finished the 2008 season as runner-up in the GT2 class. In 2009 Lieb remained in the Le Mans Series and at Felbermayr-Proton, but was joined by a new team-mate in Richard Lietz . The driver duo finished two championship races in the 2009 season as class winners. Lieb and Lietz also won the 1000 km race in Spa , but the car was disqualified at the technical inspection. While Lieb was being lapped by the JetAlliance Aston Martin DBR9 , the two vehicles collided. In the resulting tire damage, the rear fender was badly damaged. Since the tire was no longer completely covered, the race stewards felt that the rules had been violated and the car was taken out of the ranking. Felbermayr-Proton protested the decision and was awarded the victory again by the arbitration tribunal. After Francisco Cruz Martins in the sister car at the start of the 1000 km race in Algarve pushed away the team-mates who were now leading in the championship and only received two points after repairs, Lieb and Lietz showed up for the last race in Silverstone with an eight point lead. Lieb's team-mate Lietz won the qualification and increased the team's point account to nine points. In the race, however, pursuers Robert Bell and Gianmaria Bruni took the lead. The Porsche boxer engine , however, only ran on five out of six cylinders. Despite a lack of performance, the German-Austrian driver duo narrowly scored points and finished the championship as the winner of the GT2 category with one point ahead. At the end of the year, Lieb and Wolf Henzler were registered for Felbermayr-Proton in the newly founded Asian Le Mans Series in Okayama . Lieb qualified the car as the fastest GT2 driver for the two 500 km races. In the first race, however, he and Henzler lost the lead at the BMW of Tommy Milner and Dirk Müller . In the second run the car retired early due to technical problems. In 2010 too, Lieb's main field of activity was the Le Mans Series races. He and his team mate Richard Lietz finished three of the five races as class winners of the GT2. The duo thus defended their title in the championship. In addition, the final in Silverstone was part of the newly announced Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in which his Felbermayr-Proton team also took part. The season of only three races ended on November 7th with the 1000 km race in Zhuhai. The podium placement of Lieb and Lietz and the fourth place of the sister car was enough for Felbermayr-Proton to win the GT2 team championship of the new series.

Le Mans 24 hour race

Porsche 996 GT3 RSR from Lieb in Le Mans 2005

Marc Lieb's first outing at the Le Mans 24-hour race was in 2003 alongside Leo Hindery and Peter Baron , with whom he drove at Daytona and Sebring at the beginning of the year. Together they finished the race in second place in the GT class. He was again registered in Le Mans in 2004 and 2005, but Mike Rockenfeller has now been joined by another Porsche works driver. The 2004 race started promisingly, the driver trio Hindery, Rockenfeller and Lieb qualified the car in third place among the GT cars, but the car suffered a gearbox failure after 223 laps. In 2005 the race went better for the team. Rockenfeller already finished the qualification - as the best GT2 driver - in 33rd place on the grid. By the end of the race, the team drove up to 10th place overall to win the class. Thanks to their constancy and the reliability of their Porsche 996 GT3-RSR, they were able to leave significantly more powerful Le Mans prototypes and GT1 vehicles behind. Marc Lieb was unable to defend his class win in 2006 because, on the one hand, his Le Mans Series team, Autorlando Sport, was not invited to the 24-hour race in Le Mans and, on the other hand, the remaining factory driver positions were occupied by other drivers. In 2009 Lieb returned to the Sarthe with Felbermayr-Proton . He qualifies the Porsche 997 GT3 RSR as the second fastest driver in the GT2 with 3/100 seconds behind his brand colleague Jörg Bergmeister. Lieb started the race together with Richard Lietz and Wolf Henzler. However, the trio fell by the wayside on lap 24 with electronic problems with the fuel pump . In 2010 Lieb returned to the Sarthe with the same line-up, but ended the race that year as class winner in 11th place overall.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2003	Orbit Racing	Porsche 996 GT3 RS	Leo Hindery	Peter Baron	Rank 17
2004	Orbit Racing / BAM!	Porsche 996 GT3 RS	Leo Hindery	Mike Rockenfeller	failure	transmission
2005	Alex Job Racing / BAM!	Porsche 996 GT3 RSR	Leo Hindery	Mike Rockenfeller	Rank 10 and class win
2009	Felbermayr proton	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Richard Lietz	Wolf Henzler	failure	electronics
2010	Felbermayr proton	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Richard Lietz	Wolf Henzler	11th place and class win
2011	Felbermayr-Proton team	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Richard Lietz	Wolf Henzler	Rank 16
2012	Felbermayr-Proton team	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Richard Lietz	Wolf Henzler	failure
2013	Porsche AG Team Manthey	Porsche 911 RSR	Richard Lietz	Romain Dumas	15th place and class win
2014	Porsche team	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Neel Jani	Romain Dumas	Rank 11
2015	Porsche team	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Neel Jani	Romain Dumas	Rank 5
2016	Porsche team	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Neel Jani	Romain Dumas	Overall victory

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2002	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Timo Bernhard	Jörg Bergmeister	failure	Electrics
2003	Orbit Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Peter Baron	Leo Hindery	failure	Engine failure
2004	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-RSR	Romain Dumas	Lucas Luhr	Rank 10
2006	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Porsche 996 GT3-RSR	Johannes van Overbeek	Jon Fogarty	Rank 9
2007	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Porsche 996 GT3-RSR	Johannes van Overbeek	Jörg Bergmeister	Rank 13
2008	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Wolf Henzler	Jörg Bergmeister	Rank 12 and class win
2009	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Patrick Long	Jörg Bergmeister	Rank 10
2010	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Patrick Long	Jörg Bergmeister	Rank 9
2011	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Patrick Long	Jörg Bergmeister	Rank 16
2012	Team Felbermayr Proton	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Richard Lietz	Patrick Pilet	Rank 22

Web links

Commons : Marc Lieb  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Marc Lieb on Porsche Motorsport
• official homepage
• Porsche trio wins drivers' title in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship (WEC) 2016