Though Theo Oeverhaus and Alessandro Ghiretti have different backgrounds, they are now on the same path as Porsche Juniors. This is how their 2025 seasons are going so far.
The two Porsche Juniors fighting to repay Porsche Motorsport's faith in them in 2025 are almost polar opposites.
Maybe not geographically, even if
But in terms of their racing careers, you could certainly make the case.
One of them - Ghiretti - is a 23-year-old in his second year in the programme, having made his way through international karting and single-seaters.
Ghiretti was even a Formula 1 junior during his generally successful time in Formula 4, a time that yielded not just wins but an international titles. But he then answered the siren call of sportscar racing in general, and Porsche Carrera Cup racing specifically.
"I was always a big fan of Porsche from my childhood, it was a dream for me as a French guy to one day be able to race in Le Mans," Ghiretti says.
"And you cannot race in Le Mans in single-seaters. I think it was a good training to start my career."
Oeverhaus is three years younger,
Instead, a start in a DMV Cup Series - "the cheapest series you can drive" where he "learned a lot" - and yet, just two years later, a guest start in the DTM, perhaps the most intense GT3 competition in the world.
"It was, for sure, a tough weekend, because at the same time I was also driving the [support series] DTM Trophy," he recalls.
"It was a double programme, and to switch in one day, three or four times, the car from a GT4 to a GT3, where the difference is like really big, it's very tricky to perform at the maximum each session."
These very different backgrounds took a little while to intersect, even as both committed to learning their trade in the vast of Porsche One-Make Series championships.
Oeverhaus started off in the
For extra flair, he did both a week apart - wrapping up the French title in qualifying at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve before celebrating it with a double race win. He then jetted off to Shanghai to clinch the other championship.
What the two do have in common, then, is that they are both winners in this system, both before their entry into the Porsche Motorsport Junior Programme and now in its colours.
Oeverhaus went lights-to-flag from pole in this year's Imola opener of the marquee
Ghiretti was wiped out in an early multi-car crash in that race: ”Like every year, Imola is always a nightmare for me," he jokes. But he has really kicked on since then, working his way to a championship lead in both the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup and the Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Deutschland.
It's the same kind of racing across the two series, but there are subtle differences that can actually be quite keenly felt - even beyond the fact that the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup is a single-race-per-round series, while the Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Deutschland is two races per weekend.
"I think the biggest thing is the time schedule," Oeverhaus, who is also racing full-time in both championships, acknowledges.
"The Supercup is a bit more tricky with the track time - you don't have so much track time, and you have to get used to new braking boards.
"F1 is driving with other sponsors [ad boards] on track, so everything is new [in terms of braking references] compared to testing, which is normally not the same.
"And also where the grip is, because F1 is driving in different lines to the DTM, for example. Where the DTM is driving on the kerbs, the F1 cars are not doing this, so sometimes [in the Supercup] you have to adapt a bit to the F1 line."
The relative lack of in-weekend mileage, with just a single Friday practice in both series, can be tough, but that's part of the challenge. These series are at the very top of the One-Make Series pyramid, after all.
"I honestly don't care, as long as it's the same for everyone, I'm completely fine with everything. I like to drive a lot but I'm also fine with driving just three times a weekend," says Oeverhaus.
He has clearly had a bit of a difficult season since the high of that Imola win, sitting eighth in the standings in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup and fourth in the Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Deutschland.
But when things clicked, they really clicked. Oeverhaus guested in the Porsche Carrera Cup France opener in April, taking two poles by 0.646s and 0.352s, then leading 37 laps of 38 across the two races.
It's the kind of performance that means a lot in the Carrera Cup car - the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, also often referred to as the 992 Cup - because it's a car geared towards coaxing out talent. It also teaches getting your elbows out.
"There is a lot of contact," Ghiretti says. "It's part of the game. The wheels are quite protected so you can play more with that. It's a different style of racing and really nice and really enjoyable to do."
Across the German series and the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, Ghiretti and Oeverhaus face off against many of the same drivers in both paddocks. There are many very accomplished drivers at that, some of whom may feel that they themselves can have aspirations to be Porsche Juniors or to represent Porsche Motorsport at the top levels.
It demands an awkward question: do they feel like they have a target on their back when they go out there and face off against those who would love to have this opportunity?
"It's a tricky question," Oeverhaus admits. "Because I think there are many drivers who deserve to be Porsche Juniors actually, because it's so close when you take in context. I would say, the top 12 drivers are able to do pole position here, it's so close, it's so difficult to make this little twist, to be better than the others."
Oeverhaus isn't wrong. The average gap in from pole to 12th in qualifying this year has been 0.924s in Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Deutschland, 0.556s in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.
In a recent round of the latter in Hungary, Oeverhaus himself lapped 0.145s off pole - and found himself eighth on the grid.
"So," he continues, "everyone is looking at you for sure when you're going through the hospitality, thinking 'why didn't I get the job as Porsche Junior?' but it's really close and I'm super happy I managed to be the Porsche Junior.
"But I don't want to say that they're, like, driving harder against us in a race. I think it's still the same. You always want to beat everyone, you don't want to just beat the Porsche Junior."
"Yeah, I agree pretty much," says Ghiretti. "It's my second year as a Porsche Junior - when you're in your first year, I think it's different. I had this maybe more in my mind. Now we are also two, so this can help.
"To be honest, I'm just super proud, super happy and super thankful to Porsche that they chose me, I just want to win races, make them proud, and to show them they made the right choice."
There's also, naturally, competition between the two of them. Does that risk spilling over?
"I mean, there is no point to crash into each other," says Ghiretti. "It looks stupid if both Juniors DNF together. And on track we are not always one behind the other, there is - as he said before - a lot of high-level competition, so there are sometimes some drivers between us. And I think if we're racing together, we're good enough and clever enough to not crash into each other."
Ghiretti is of course targeting both titles this year, but both he and Oeverhaus are clear they primarily want to end the season feeling they've given it their all and not left anything on the table, not thrown away results.
Beyond that, both have their goals clear.
"For sure, if I have to say the dream, the best ever, it would be for me to drive in Le Mans, in the Hypercar, and to win it would be like the best achievement of my life," Ghiretti says. "But I'm so far from this point, but I work every day really hard to try to reach it."
"Yeah, it's for me the same," echoes Oeverhaus. "I think if you choose this path, what we are doing, it's the goal every driver has, to win Le Mans, also winning the WEC, the World Endurance Championship - these are the goals, this is the highest point we can reach. We can't go to F1, this is the one path we're going. For me it's the same - Le Mans, WEC, these are where I want to be on top."
