Jeff Seabrook

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BMW M Motorsport returns to Le Mans with the BMW M Hybrid V8: WEC involvement from 2024.

Munich. BMW M Motorsport returns to the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (FRA) in 2024. One year after its debut season in the North American IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2023, the new BMW M Hybrid V8 will also take on the top-class opposition in the Hypercars category in the official FIA World Endurance Championship. On Monday, 25^th July, the first BMW M Motorsport prototype since the legendary BMW V12 LMR completed its first laps at the roll-out in Varano de Melegari (ITA).

“The decision to run the BMW M Hybrid V8 in the IMSA series from 2023, and the WEC from 2024, is a milestone for the project,” said Franciscus van Meel, CEO of BMW M GmbH. “I sampled and marvelled at the extraordinary flair of the 24 Hours of Le Mans during my first term as CEO of BMW M so I am very excited to be challenging for overall victory as BMW M Motorsport again at this classic and in the whole World Endurance Championship for the first time for decades. The BMW M Hybrid V8 represents a turning point towards electrification for BMW M. The IMSA series in North America and the WEC, which takes place all over the world, are the perfect platforms, on which to use our prototype to show how exciting electrified BMW M cars will be in the future.”

Andreas Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport, said: “Due to the very tight schedule for the LMDh project, the plan has always been to focus on one field of application in the first season in 2023. The IMSA series is perfectly suited for this. However, our mid-term goal was obviously to race on two fronts with the BMW M Hybrid V8, and also to use the major platform provided by the WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We are now working determinedly towards this, at the same time as our programme in North America. We took the next important step on Monday. The car successfully completed its roll-out at Dallara in Varano de Melegari. We now start the intensive test work before the race debut in January 2023 at Daytona.”

Sunday July 16, 2023
2024

No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 Finishes Third at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park to Record BMW M Team RLL’s 100th Podium; No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 Wins GTD.

Woodcliff Lake, N.J. – July 9, 2023 . . . The No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8, of Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly, scored a third-place finish by way of a clever strategy at today’s Chevrolet Grand Prix, to record the team’s fourth podium of the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar season and 100^th podium in the team’s history. The duo completed 119 laps of the 2.459-mile, 10-turn Canadian Tire Motorsports Park circuit in the two-hour-and-forty-minute event, finishing some 19 seconds behind the No. 60 Acura ARX-06 under the races fourth caution period.

Pitting very early on lap 14 for fuel only, starting driver Yelloly jumped off sequence from the eight other GTP class competitors and as the field made their first pit stops cycled into the lead. Without the hoped-for caution period that could have kept the car in front, he handed off to De Phillippi on lap 55 under green. That first caution occurred on lap 66 and De Phillippi pitted for fuel only on lap 68. The race endured three more cautions in the last one-hour-and-forty minutes allowing De Phillippi to move into third and clinch the last podium position as the race ended under yellow with the race’s final caution.

So far this year, the No. 25 car has scored a win (Watkins Glen), two runner-up finishes (Sebring and Long Beach), and a third (CTMP). De Phillippi and Yelloly stand second in GTP driver point standings and BMW stands second in GTP class manufacturer points.

Augusto Farfus and Philipp Eng endured a difficult day to finish eighth. Mired in the rear of the field for the majority of the race, the duo had little luck moving up, both drivers incurring a drive-through penalty in their stints. Farfus and Eng stand eighth in driver points, with a season’s-best fourth-place finish (Long Beach) in the No. 24 car.

Bobby Rahal, Team Principal said, “I'm really impressed. The guys with the No. 25 car pulled off a great strategy. We weren't the fastest car by any means and yet, our strategy really worked out and Connor did a great job of staying ahead of everybody at the end. It just shows you that you can never count yourself out. Anything can happen. We had had a bunch of yellows right at the end and that certainly worked in our favor. I think this does great things for us in the points as well.”

Sunday July 9, 2023
2024

The Le Mans Classic 2023. BMW Group Classic enters a BMW M1 Group 4 in legendary “Wirtshaus” livery.

Munich/Le Mans.

BMW Group Classic is returning to the Le Mans Classic for the first time since 2014 – and will line up at the Circuit de La Sarthe with the legendary BMW M1 Group 4 in “Münchener Wirtshaus” livery. Piloting the car will be the original driver trio from the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1981: HRH Prince Leopold of Bavaria (DE),...

Munich/Le Mans.

On 15 June 2023 the team met up at the Spatenhaus an der Oper restaurant in Munich to set the scene for the action to come.

The drivers got together with fans and media representatives to
recreate the pre-race public photo call from 1981. The event on 3 June that year was intended to shine the spotlight on the company’s involvement in the upcoming 24-hour race.

So history was repeating itself this year – with the same venue, the same car and the same drivers.