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Positive Trend That Started in 2024 Continued at Rolex 24
February 17, 2025
By John Oreovicz IMSA Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It may not have been obvious to the outside world, but BMW M Motorsport’s Le Mans Daytona h (LMDh) prototype program made a great deal of progress in 2024.
On the surface, it was a challenging season for the Munich marque as its pair of entries dropped from sixth and eighth in the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class standings to seventh and eighth. But the year ended on a high note, with the BMW M Hybrid V8 earning its first “on-the-track” victory in international sports car competition at the six-hour TireRack.com Battle On The Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – a commanding 1-2 finish for BMW M Team RLL, no less.
That trend of improvement carried over into 2025, as BMW M Team RLL turned in strong performances at Daytona International Speedway in both the Roar Before The 24 test session and the Rolex 24 At Daytona. It came with a thoroughly revised driver lineup, as BMW believes having its core drivers pull double duty with BMW M Team RLL in IMSA and BMW M Team WRT in the FIA World Endurance Championship will strengthen the overall effort by speeding up the development of the BMW M Hybrid V8 common to both series.
Philipp Eng is BMW’s only full-season 2024 IMSA driver returning in 2025, joined full-time this year by Dries Vanthoor in the No. 24 car. Meanwhile, Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann command the No. 25 car. The lineup for IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races expands to include Kevin Magnussen in the No. 24 and Robin Frijns in the No. 25. The two teams were joined at Daytona by Raffaele Marciello and Rene Rast, respectively.
The philosophy seemed to pay immediate dividends at Daytona, as a BMW placed first or second in all five dry test sessions at the Roar, with Vanthoor fastest overall in the No. 24. Vanthoor maintained that form in Rolex 24 qualifying as he earned BMW’s first Motul Pole Award in the current era of GTP competition.
“Clearly when you have a good sanctioning test and a good Roar, it always helps for going into the race week,” observed Andreas Roos, head of BMW M Motorsport. “On the other hand, we know testing is testing and racing is racing. But we felt strong. We had a good run through all the sessions, and for sure, the pole position from Dries Vanthoor was amazing. Super pleased to get our first pole position with this car.
“When we started the program, we were late with the decision to enter and we always had to catch up,” Roos added. “But I think especially from the middle of last year, we saw some great development in terms of our performance. We were getting there. It looked quite promising for us, and we knew we still had some things to tweak on the car to make it even better.”
Roos confirmed BMW has deployed one of its available “performance evo joker” updates.
“We used the small winter break that we had to improve that in testing. We took a ‘joker’ on the car on the brake system side,” he said. “This is nothing which improves the lap time, but more the consistency and drivability of the car, which also in the end helps the drivers to perform consistently over 24 hours.”
Higher Expectations
BMW was unable to add a second GTP win at Daytona, but the BMW M Hybrid V8 continued to demonstrate its pace. Vanthoor built a 25-second lead at the start before full-course cautions brought him back to the field. The No. 24 led a total of 90 laps and ran second for the final restart, when it incurred damage to the nose after contact with the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 that ultimately finished as the runner-up to the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963.
The No. 24 BMW finished fourth at Daytona, while the No. 25 also led laps but was delayed and lost several laps during its overnight brake change, claiming seventh in the GTP class. BMWs also clocked the two fastest race laps, with van der Linde in the No. 25 car quickest at 1 minute, 35.858 seconds (133.684 mph) and Vanthoor in the No. 24 just over a tenth of a second off. Both BMWs ran all 24 hours without any mechanical problems.
“Obviously finishing P4 in a 24-hour race is not the end of the world,” stated Vanthoor. “But at the end of the day, it’s very sad to fight for 22 hours and to come home with a podium, which we for sure deserved. I feel sorry for the guys who have been working very hard, and also to my teammates. Most important is that we showed that we were strong and able to fight.”
For Roos, the benefits from consolidating BMW’s worldwide driver lineup are already showing dividends.
“I would say it is clearly paying off,” Roos said. “The fact that the season starts in January with the 24-hour race at Daytona is very beneficial for us. This allows us to have all eight drivers together for an extended period early in the season, helping us to optimally synchronize with each other. We did a lot of development from the start of the program, and we clearly realized that the (IMSA and WEC) cars are very specific. We had a lot of drivers jumping from one car to the other and we clearly saw that we wanted the (WEC) Hypercar drivers to focus more on the Hypercars.
“Sheldon and Dries will do the double duty, which not only helps us with the exchanges on the engineering side, but now we also have a big exchange with drivers who run both championships,” he continued. “This helps us to accelerate the program and share the information. For us, it’s a win-win situation. The drivers get more seat time, which is always beneficial to improve the speed and feel more comfortable and confident in the car, and we have the ability to share information.”
Both van der Linde and Vanthoor have a couple other things in common: they were both part of BMW M Team WRT’s FIA WEC lineup in 2024 and they’ve both got older brothers who race successfully. Sheldon’s older brother Kelvin is a BMW factory driver as well and competed at the Rolex 24 with Paul Miller Racing’s BMW M4 GT3 EVO in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class. Dries’ older brother Laurens is a Porsche factory ace and emerged victorious ahead of Dries in the Rolex 24 in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963.
The younger van der Linde is keen to take on the double duty challenge, even if it means a punishing trans-continental travel schedule.
“Luckily I don’t have a wife and kids!” joked van der Linde. “Well, not lucky, but it’s good timing for me, let’s put it that way. I’m 25 now, I live alone in Munich. There are a lot of positives. I’m racing less than last year, but I’m probably going to be on the road more.
“Last year I did DTM (German Touring Car Championship) and WEC as well, so I was jumping from GT3 car to Hypercar,” he continued. “That’s not an easy transition, and I think the fact I’m committed to one car now is really going to set me up to get used to the car and exploit those last few tenths. When you jump into the GT3 car, it always takes you a session or two to get back into the rhythm again. Whereas now you jump straight back into the car and you’re on it from lap one and you know exactly what to expect. Just small things like the steering wheel buttons or whatever.”
Roos is confident that BMW has the potential for a breakout season in IMSA in 2025.
“We must take the positives from Daytona: The strong trend from 2024 clearly continues, we were able to build on it and field a competitive car in the GTP class,” he said. “There are things we are still working on and for sure, because it’s very competitive in IMSA and WEC with all the manufacturers. You always have to get everything together and work on every single bit.”
Team photo courtesy of BMW M Motorsport
