BMW is enterprise its first WEC programme since its M8 contested the GTE Professional class in 2018-19, and embarking on a primary bid for outright success on the Le Mans 24 Hours since its V12 LMR received in 1999 with Yannick Dalmas, Pierluigi Martini and Joachim Winkelhock.
However the German producer heads into this weekend’s Qatar 1812km occasion on the again of a troubled exhibiting within the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s blue riband occasion in Florida, the place the very best of M Hybrid V8s completed 13 laps down in seventh place.
Nonetheless, BMW doesn’t see the end in Daytona as a priority for the beginning of its new WEC venture, having put in a major quantity of labor to iron out the problems with its Dallara-based LMDh contender that made its IMSA debut final 12 months.
Aside from the efforts put in again at its base, BMW additionally racked up plenty of laps with the automobile along side its WEC associate squad WRT, together with at a 24-hour check in Spain, to be in absolute best form for the 10-hour fixture on the Losail Worldwide Circuit.
Talking to Autosport on Wednesday, BMW motorsport boss Andreas Roos expressed optimism concerning the reliability of the automobile for its first 12 months of competitors within the WEC.
“The automobile was fast sufficient to be on the rostrum however we had reliability points,” he stated.
“This was our highest precedence in the previous couple of days from Daytona to now, to assault them and to get them solved.
“We’re assured what occurred there should not occur right here however you by no means know.
#15 BMW M Group Wrt BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann
Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“However that is for certain the very best purpose, as a result of on the finish we do endurance racing and as it’s properly referred to as, first you need to end, to complete first.
“So that is why the reliability is all the time an enormous matter and that is what we largely work on, that we’re certain that the automobiles are dependable.”
BMW loved a quick stint on the entrance within the 24-hour basic at Daytona, however its hopes of an enormous outcome had been crushed when each its Rahal Letterman Lanigan-run automobiles had been beset by technical points in fast succession simply earlier than daybreak broke in Florida.
The #25 BMW M Hybrid that led plenty of laps with three-time DTM champion Rene Rast on the wheel misplaced a major chunk of time with a leak within the gearbox cooler, whereas the sister #24 automobile stopped on monitor with an electrical drama and needed to be towed again to the pitlane.
Dries Vanthoor, who was driving the #24 BMW when it crawled to a halt on the Daytona Worldwide Speedway, echoed Roos’ response concerning the efforts BMW needed to flip the M Hybrid V8 right into a extra dependable challenger.
“We had a couple of setbacks, nevertheless it was the second 24 hour race for the automobile,” he advised Autosport.
“We after all had some setbacks however again in Munich they took that in a short time and did their homework and already made some enhancements for that to not occur once more.
“Usually they’ve their homework performed now. So it must be high-quality.”
#24 BMW M Group RLL BMW M Hybrid V8: Jesse Krohn, Philipp Eng, Augusto Farfus, Dries Vanthoor
Photograph by: Artwork Fleischmann
Sheldon van der Linde, who will associate his DTM team-mate Rast and Robin Frijns within the #20 entry in WEC this 12 months, acknowledged that the strides BMW has made on the reliability entrance means it may well now shift concentrate on enhancing the efficiency of the automobile.
“We’ve got performed plenty of testing,” the South African advised Autosport. “We went to Aragon for a 24-hour endurance check within the final month, in order that’s gone very well.
“We managed to run the check with virtually no challenge. We’ve got performed plenty of testing in between IMSA for the WEC championship particularly with WRT.
“So by way of testing we’ve got performed plenty of mileage within the automobile which is essential.
“Reliability is the 1st step, as soon as that’s sorted, which it’s now I imagine, we are able to work on efficiency.”
Rast was extra cautious about making any conclusions concerning the reliability of the automobile, saying it received’t be clear if the work BMW has put in can pay dividends till the tip of the Qatar weekend.
“Clearly on the reliability aspect we had some points. We tried to resolve them,” he advised Autosport.
“We had a few check days and hopefully sorted them, however we do not know. We are going to see in couple of days if the automobile is definitely operating with out points.”
Nonetheless, when requested if he had any issues for the Qatar race, which is now the second-longest spherical on the calendar after Le Mans, he stated: “Hopefully not. Clearly it is longer however the automobile is constructed to final 24 hours of Le Mans so hopefully it can final 10 hours.”