Porsche will "take its time" replacing tech chief Hitzinger

The reigning WEC champion manufacturer has restructured its management team in the wake of Hitzinger's exit, with team principal Andreas Seidl taking on some of Hitzinger’s previous responsibilities.

“Fritz [Enzinger – Vice-President of the LMP1 programme] asked me to take over this role on a temporary basis, which I do now in addition to my role as team principal,” Seidl told Motorsport.com.

“But we shouldn’t forget that success in such a project is the result of a big team effort and not just down to any individual person. We have a very strong engineering line-up and a big engineering power back in Weissach.”

Porsche is conducting pre-Le Mans tests this week at Motorland Aragon in Spain, before heading to Spa for the second round of the WEC, where Seidl will continue his dual role.

Motorsport.com understands that a replacement for Hitzinger, who left Porsche to pursue an engineering role away from the motorsport industry, is not expected to be confirmed until after the Le Mans 24 Hours. 

A new technical director is likely to begin initial work on the Porsche's 2018 WEC design.

Seidl added: “It is fully open at the moment because the 2016 car is developed, so we will take our time now on how we want [the team] to be structured in the future."