WEC start with target e-licence: DTM champion Ayhancan Güven aims for Formula E debut in season 13

Despite his title win in 2025 with Manthey Racing, Porsche works driver Ayhancan Güven will not be competing in DTM again next year. Instead, the Turkish driver will switch to the Porsche customer team in the World Endurance Championship for 2026. The plan is for Güven to collect enough FIA Super Licence points here to be able to compete in the second Porsche works team in Formula E at the start of the Gen4 era.

Ayhancan Güven has announced that he will leave DTM after winning the title in 2025. One day later, Manthey Racing announced the Turkish driver as the new driver for its GT3 programme in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) with the #91 car. The Porsche customer team has won the title here in each of the past two seasons.

 

 

 

 

 

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According to information from e-Formula.news, the background to this change is the plan to enable Güven to enter Formula E in season 13. Porsche will then compete with two works teams in the electric racing series for the first time and will have four cockpits to fill.

Licence conditions not yet fulfilled

The problem, however, is that in order to be allowed to compete in Formula E, a driver must apply for an e-licence. To obtain this, the driver needs super licence points from the FIA. These are mainly awarded in formula racing series - but Güven has never raced in formula cars in his career. Porsche must therefore come up with a "plan B" here.

According to Appendix L of the FIA International Sporting Code, 20 super licence points are required for the e-licence. Exceptions would be the possession of a Formula 1 Super Licence or outstanding performances in single-seater racing series in which at least 20 points per season are awarded to the champion: Formula 2, Formula 3, IndyCar or Super Formula.

Alternatively, the e-licence can also be obtained with 15 points as soon as the driver has covered at least 100 km in a Formula E car of the current generation in a free practice session and/or in an official test. Güven, who convinced with the second-best lap time of all drivers at the official rookie test in Berlin in July, completing 59 laps in the morning and 28 laps in the afternoon, fulfils this requirement. This equates to more than 206 kilometres on the 2.374 km circuit.

However, Güven has only collected six super licence points so far thanks to his DTM title in 2025. The runner-up title in the 2024 Intercontinental GT Challenge does not help him here, as this only consisted of four races. According to the FIA regulations, a minimum of five races are required for points to be awarded for the super licence in a series.

9 points missing: No alternative to WEC entry for Güven

Güven therefore urgently needs another nine points before the start of the Formula E season next year. This is where the fact that there are significantly more points up for grabs in the WEC than in national GT3 series such as the DTM comes into play. While he would not qualify for the e-licence even if he won the DTM title again, this would be possible in WEC. Here, he would have to finish in one of the top two places in the LMGT3 class with Manthey Racing in order to be able to score the nine missing points. The points system for the top three is 12 - 10 - 7.

In addition to the LMGT3 option, there were only two alternatives for Porsche: Güven would either have had to start in the IMSA prototype class for this - also a politically difficult endeavour, as the drivers Julien Andlauer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor there are already earmarked for the IMSA cockpits following Porsche's withdrawal from the WEC hypercar class. Unlike these drivers, Güven does not yet have any racing experience with the Porsche 963.

The other option: placing Güven in a formula series. Here too, however, the Turkish driver would have to assert himself without any previous experience against drivers who have already been involved in formula racing for several years and would therefore have an advantage in almost all areas - from tyres and car set-up to collaborating with the engineers. The chances of success would be almost zero.

The situation is different in WEC, where three drivers share a car: Porsche could give the DTM champion two fast and experienced GT3 teammates who can fight for victories alongside the Turkish driver. According to the provisional WEC entry list, the amateur driver that a GT3 team is required to field could be Briton James Cottingham, who previously drove a McLaren for United Autosports.

We will see whether it will actually be enough for Güven to get his e-licence on 7 November 2026 at the latest, when the WEC season finale is held in Bahrain. A few days later, the first pre-season tests with the Gen4 Formula E cars will take place - possibly with Güven in the second Porsche works team.