BMW Motorsport "is not in a hurry" when it comes to closing its lineup for the WEC

Andreas Roos, BMW's head of competition, is clear that the firm is going to take the necessary time to complete the lineup of drivers that it will use in its project together with WRT in the WEC hypercar class.

BMW M Motorsport's LMDh project achieved its first major IMSA success with victory for the BMW M Hybrid V8 at Watkins Glen. Almost in parallel, the German brand kicked off its effort in Europe with the first test of its prototype under the direct supervision of Team WRT. The Belgian team will manage the two LMDh with which the brand will compete in the WEC from 2024.

A first test session at MotorLand Aragón took place without incident and was attended by up to six official BMW M Motorsport drivers. We are talking about Sheldon Van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor, Jesse Krohn, and Maxime Martin, as well as the brand's Junior riders Max Hesse and Dan Harper. René Rast could not be there due to his commitments in Formula E.

A list of drivers on which the line-up with which the Munich firm will compete in the WEC in 2024 could well be built. However, it does not have to be that way, since Andrea Roos himself as head of BMW competition has already made it clear that the brand is going to take its time to complete the list of drivers with which it will appear in the WEC hypercar category together with Team WRT.

The truth is that BMW M Motorsport has a good crop of drivers. In addition to the six pilots present in the test and the aforementioned René Rast, it should be remembered that the brand already competes in IMSA with pilots of the stature of Augusto Farfus, Philipp Eng, Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly, whom in the appointments of long-term teams like Daytona or Sebring have also joined Colton Herta and Marco Wittmann.

Meditated process

In this sense, Andreas Roos has been clear: «This will still take a little time since we have only just started the test phase. We are not in a hurry at the moment, to be honest, when it comes to defining the drivers. We want to give different drivers a chance in the car. We have a very good and strong driver line-up at BMW, so we are sure to find and choose the right drivers for the WEC.”

In fact, despite having up to 21 official pilots, BMW does not close to looking outside its walls: «We still do not know what can happen. We have a strong driver line-up at BMW, so we can be happy with this, although it is not final. Now we start the testing phase and we'll see where we end up and what we do. We need drivers for IMSA, for the WEC, and for the many GT programs going on, so I think our drivers won't get bored."

Main point

The person in charge of BMW M Motorsport has indicated, in turn, that one of the objectives of the brand is that there is a permanent crew of six drivers for the WEC with WRT and four drivers in IMSA with RLL, which would be added some extra pilot as a reserve pilot or to complete the effort in the American competition in long-term appointments, all given the probability of a clash of dates between the two series.

“We must have the best drivers in WEC and IMSA, but there will be a lot of clashing dates and we want to maintain the level of what we are doing with GT3 racing at the moment. We want to keep the momentum going because it's the right direction to go. Of course, it all depends on how many date clashes and how all the championships can be combined », added Andreas Roos who does not forget the interest in competing in LMGT3, possibly also with WRT.