BMW back in the top class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans: 25 years after the triumph of Joachim Winkelhock, Pierluigi Martini and Yannick Dalmas with the BMW V12 LMR, this will become a reality in 2024. After the debut of the Munich-based LMDh prototype in the US sports car championship IMSA last year, BMW, in cooperation with the Belgian racing team WRT, will also be competing in the WEC World Endurance Championship from 2024 – and thus also in Le Mans.
BMW was able to secure a promising starting position for the 92nd edition of the 24-hour race, which starts tomorrow, Saturday, June 15, 2024. While the #20 BMW (S. van der Linde/Frijns/Rast) missed the Hyperpole in 16th place, Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW (D. Vanthoor/Marciello/Wittmann) achieved the fastest time in qualifying. In the subsequent Hyperpole on Thursday evening, Vanthoor only managed seventh place after an accident (P6 after a penalty against the #2 Cadillac), but BMW is still within striking distance of the leaders.
BMW lacks experience at 24h Le Mans
The importance of qualifying is, however, rather irrelevant in a 24-hour race. “Of course it’s nice to be on pole here, but you also have to be realistic. Firstly, the competition is tough and secondly, the race is extremely long,” said BMW Motorsport Director Andreas Roos on Wednesday in Le Mans. “It doesn’t matter whether you start from first, fifth or tenth place.”
But what are the chances in the race? One thing is clear: Just like the other WEC newcomers, Lamborghini, Alpine and Isotta Fraschini, BMW is fighting for last year’s winner in Le Mans with a lack of experience compared to the already established manufacturers Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche, Cadillac and Peugeot. “The only thing you can never buy in motorsport is time. And we made the decision late, especially to enter the WEC,” Roos said, dampening expectations in advance. BMW does, however, have one advantage over the other newcomers: the BMW M Hybrid V8 had already completed a full IMSA season before entering the sport.
Rast: Still missing something at the front
Given this lack of experience, even the greatest optimists at BMW do not believe that they have a chance of winning overall. “We definitely need a bit more time,” said Rene Rast in Le Mans about Motorsport-Magazin.com“But we are making progress from race to race, from weekend to weekend. You can see that, but we are still missing a bit of progress.”
In view of this, Rast has set cautious goals for the 24-hour debut of the LMDh BMW: “If we have a good race without any problems, just drive through and the others have a few problems, then we can probably finish in the top 10, maybe even in the top 6 like in Imola.” At the race weekend at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, the trio around Rast in the #20 BMW achieved P6, the best WEC result so far for the German car manufacturer.
BMW to Le Mans podium with weather support?
Marco Wittmann in the sister BMW with the starting number #15, still without a top 10 result in the WEC, commented in an interview with Motorsport-Magazin.com also cautious: “I’m more of the type who prefers to approach things a bit more conservatively, because we certainly weren’t in a position at the previous events where we could say that we could get to the podium on our own.”
The situation in Le Mans was much more optimistic Robin Frijns. The 32-year-old was hoping for unstable weather. Rain is expected in the run-up to the 24-hour race. “If you look at Imola, where we had our strongest race: at one point we were fighting with Toyota for P3 in the rain.” In view of the weather forecast, Frijns therefore dared to come out of hiding more than his brand colleagues: “It won’t be easy with the weather forecast and hopefully we’ll come away with a podium finish.”
At the same time, Frijns was also aware of the LMDh BMW’s fundamental performance deficit in dry conditions: “We still have some problems in the background that we need to work on and that we still haven’t sorted out properly at the moment. But if everything works well and the car is in a good window, we can fight somewhere at the front.”
Porsche worries at BMW
However, BMW is concerned about the strong competition. Porsche, in particular, is one of the favorites after two wins in the first three WEC races in 2024. “Fighting with the Porsches will be difficult. The Porsche is the strongest car together with Toyota,” Frijns also believed. “We will have to see how far we are from Porsche. And unfortunately they are here with six cars.”
In addition to the works alliance between Porsche and the US racing team Penske, two customer teams will also be racing the Porsche 963 in the 2024 WEC season. The British team Jota is fielding two LMDh Porsches, while the Proton Competition racing team from Ummendorf in Baden-Württemberg is fielding another Porsche car. In addition to the two permanent cars, the Porsche-Penske works team will be fielding a third 963 with the starting number #4 (Jaminet/Nasr/Tandy) in Le Mans.
This mass of potentially extremely competitive Porsche cars could make it more difficult for the newcomers around BMW to fight for top positions. “If one, two or three brands are simply a little better than you, then you can quickly be out of the top 10,” warned Andreas Roos. “If the Porsche is faster than us, then it could happen that there are already six Porsches ahead of you.”
How are the 24 Hours of Le Mans debutants Wittmann, van der Linde and Marciello doing?
At the same time, Roos and BMW are hoping to benefit from potential problems of their competitors. “The motto still applies: To finish first, first you have to finish,” says Roos. “You can’t let yourself be passed to the back and then be laps behind, then you won’t be able to move up. But it’s no use if you’ve led the race for ten hours and then drop out.”
An additional challenge to the debut of the BMW M Hybrid V8 in Le Mans also highlights the fact that three of the six drivers (Marciello/S. van der Linde/Wittmann) are making their debut at the endurance classic in the two BMW cars. However, Frijns at least did not expect a negative impact on BMW’s performance. “When the race comes around, everyone will have a similar pace,” predicted the Dutchman.
For Wittmann and Sheldon van der Linde, however, getting used to the Circuit de la Sarthe proved more difficult than it already was. Together with Rast, the two drivers were part of a group of six drivers who only made one stopover during the test day last Sunday before returning to the DTM in Zandvoort.
Wittmann: I have to get used to experienced Le Mans drivers
There was hardly any time to really get used to the track and drive at the limit. Wittmann, for example, only completed ten compulsory laps. The two-time DTM champion on Wednesday in Le Mans: “This is something that I have to feel my way around today and tomorrow in order to get to the speed where maybe a Robin or a Dries is, who of course have already driven here in Le Mans in recent years and know by heart: which kerb can I take? How much risk can I take when overtaking?”
After all, the basic concept of a 24-hour race is nothing new for Marciello, van der Linde and Wittmann – on the contrary. The three drivers are experienced long-distance drivers and have a total of 22 starts in the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring alone. Nevertheless, the highly complex LMDh cars are a special challenge. Wittmann recently explained in an interview with Motorsport-Magazin.com. You can read all the details in this article: