BMW has ‘a good basis to build upon’ in sophomore Hypercar season

In such a fiercely competitive environment, last year was always earmarked as a learning curve for the Belgian outfit and its pair of BMW M Hybrid V8 Hypercars, but the latter stages offered the team much reason for optimism.

In the penultimate round at Fuji in Japan, Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann were on the leading pace throughout on their way to clinching the runner-up spoils – the squad’s best result of the season – and the trio threatened the podium again in the Bahrain finale before settling for fifth at the chequered flag.

That secured BMW the same spot in the overall Manufacturers’ standings – since backed up by a winter of development and a strong showing in last weekend’s 24 Hours of Daytona, yielding the M Hybrid V8’s first pole position in qualifying and a fourth-place finish in the race, despite a late collision denying the Bavarian brand a shot at glory.

With the incumbent Vanthoor and Marciello joined by new arrival Kevin Magnussen in the #15 entry, and an unchanged line-up of Robin Frijns, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde in the sister #20 car, hopes are high of vying for victory more regularly over the coming months.

“Our first season in Hypercar in FIA WEC was as challenging as expected and had its highs and lows, but we proved our motivation, determination and team spirit,” reflected WRT Co-CEO, Vincent Vosse. “We were able to improve consistently, step-by-step, although progress is never fast enough when you are in this business!

“We tasted frustration at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but when you compete, you know that this too is part of the game. It was encouraging to see that in the last three rounds of the season, we were starting to be where we want to be, as underlined by the podium finish at Fuji. For sure, we laid a good basis upon which to build in 2025, although we know that there is still a lot of work to do, and that the competition is also working...”