Pascal Zurlinden, head of factory motorsport at Porsche, made the prediction on the announcement of the German manufacturer's return to front-line sportscar racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with a new LMDh prototype in 2023.
He suggested that he expects more manufacturers to join Porsche and Audi, which are developing LMP2-based LMDh cars, and Toyota and Peugeot, which have committed to the WEC with Le Mans Hypercar machinery.
"If you look at all the manufacturers around the table... let's see who is signing in the end," he said. "Big names are coming, Toyota, Audi, Peugeot, let's see who is next.
"We could go back to the '80s and '90s with lots of cars and lots of manufacturers, and if everyone does some customer cars in the field, this could become really big for all of us."
McLaren has declared an interest in LMDh, while Ferrari has revealed that it is evaluating both routes into prototype racing.
Zurlinden was drawing an analogy with the Group C and IMSA GTP era of the 1980s and early '90s. Porsche competed against multiple manufacturers, including Lancia, Jaguar, Nissan, Toyota and Mercedes, in Group C in the forerunner of the current WEC.
In North America, the German manufacturer battled with Nissan, Jaguar, Chevrolet, Toyota and others using the same basic 962 design that raced in the world championship.
Customers running the 962 and — in the world championship, its 956 forebear — won races in both arenas.