Nine-time motorcycle grand prix world champion Valentino Rossi has been confirmed for a full-season FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 drive in a Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 for 2024. The Italian MotoGP legend joins the WEC fresh from taking part in the …
Nine-time motorcycle grand prix world champion Valentino Rossi has been confirmed for a full-season FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 drive in a Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 for 2024.
The Italian MotoGP legend joins the WEC fresh from taking part in the post-season rookie test in Bahrain with WRT earlier this month. Confirmation came when he was named on the provisional series entry list that was released this morning.
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“I am very excited to compete in the FIA WEC,” said Rossi, who enjoyed a hugely successful campaign with WRT in World Challenge Europe this season and will drive the No. 46 M4 GT3 in ’24.
“It is the next step for me to participate in a world championship, not only in Europe but to race globally again. I am already familiar with the car after this season, but the format with three drivers from three different performance categories will be new for me. Overall, I believe we will be very well positioned.”
WRT’s team principal Vincent Vosse was also delighted to share the news of “The Doctor” joining the team for its WEC campaign this morning.
“Starting with Valentino Rossi in the FIA WEC is something truly special. We talked about this at our very first meetings. Now, this circle is closing, and it feels like we’ve already ticked most of the boxes we discussed back then.”
Vosse went on to describe WRT’s four-car FIA WEC effort for 2024 with BMW as a “privilege” for the Belgian team. In addition to running a pair of M4 GT3s in LMGT3, the team has also been selected by BMW to run the pair of M Hybrid V8 LMDh prototypes in the Hypercar class.
“What a privilege for us as a team to be able to field both two BMW M Hybrid V8s and two BMW M4 GT3s for BMW M Motorsport in the FIA WEC!” he said.
“While we have two separate crews for the two projects, it will still be a significant challenge for WRT. But we love challenges! The drivers who will be working with us, we already know very well from previous joint racing commitments.”
In addition to Rossi being listed on the WEC entry, three other drivers have been confirmed for next season. Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde will race for WRT in Hypercar, while Brazillian racer Augusto Farfus is the first driver signed to steer the No. 31 M4 GT3.
“With the confirmation of our team for the Hypercar and LMGT3 classes, as well as the initial drivers, our comeback in the FIA WEC takes another important step,” said Andreas Roos, the head of BMW M Motorsport.
“BMW M Team WRT is among the best teams globally in both the prototype and GT3 segments. For sporting and logistical reasons, Vincent Vosse’s team was the logical choice to field both the BMW M Hybrid V8 and the BMW M4 GT3.
“The BMW M works drivers we have nominated possess the necessary driving skills and experience. Sheldon van der Linde is already familiar with the BMW M Hybrid V8, and Dries Vanthoor made a strong impression during test drives. Additionally, he has previously competed at Le Mans in an LMP2 prototype. Valentino Rossi made a strong debut at Le Mans this season, winning immediately in the BMW M4 GT3 (in the Road to Le Mans support race).
“Overall, his first season as a BMW M works driver has been very impressive. I am convinced that he will play an important role and be a crowd favorite in the FIA WEC. Augusto Farfus, with his experience and driving skill, will be a crucial pillar for the LMGT3 program.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID scored a dominant 8 Hours of Bahrain victory Saturday evening from pole position, bringing another highly successful FIA WEC season for the Japanese-flagged team to a close. With their second win of the …
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID scored a dominant 8 Hours of Bahrain victory Saturday evening from pole position, bringing another highly successful FIA WEC season for the Japanese-flagged team to a close.
With their second win of the season, Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa claimed the 2023 Hypercar World Endurance drivers’ championship, taking the manufacturer’s 45th all-time win as well as six victories from seven races in 2023 for the Cologne-based program.
Behind, the No. 7 sister Toyota came home second to make it a 1-2. It was a hard-fought podium for the No. 7 crew after a superb comeback drive early in the race.
Mike Conway was hit from behind by Cadillac’s Earl Bamber on the entry of Turn 1 at the start, which turned the Toyota around, dropping it to the back of the pack. “Everyone trying to win it in the first corner isn’t working well,” Conway said later.
Bamber explained after the race that he wasn’t trying to make an ambitious lunge.
“I was actually not trying to pass anyone; I was just braking,” he said. “Then, in the middle of the brake zone, both front tires just locked up. I tried to avoid the left-hand side bit just clapped the Toyota. I feel bad we affected their race and we obviously affected our own.”
The Briton had a mountain to climb but put his head down and steered the No. 7 to third in the opening hour. Kamui Kobayashi then took second off the No. 51 Ferrari 499P of James Calado at Turn 1 with just under six hours to go.
From there, the No. 7’s run to the front stalled, with Hartley, Hirakawa and Buemi at the end managing the gap back to the sister car. The winning margin was 47s after eight hours.
“It has been an amazing year,” Hartley said. “I am really proud to be part of the No. 8 crew and this Toyota Gazoo Racing team. Thanks to everyone for a fantastic season. We have had some fierce battles with car No. 7 and the other Hypercar competitors all year and today was no different. There were times when we were not the fastest car on the track so we were really pushing. Seb had the most stressful part of the race today, getting through the first corner cleanly but he and Ryo did a great job. Becoming a four-time world champion is probably going to take a while to sink in, but it sounds really nice.”
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The No. 7’s season featured many highs, including wins at Sebring, Spa, Monza and Fuji to keep Conway, Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez in the hunt for the drivers’ title and help ensure Toyota claimed the manufacturers’ crown on home soil. But the No. 7’s woes at Portimao and retirement at Le Mans proved extremely costly and ultimately prevented them from beating the sister car to the title.
Elsewhere, both Ferraris were mathematically in the title hunt for today’s finale, but for either crew to win, they needed both Toyotas to hit major trouble.
Neither 499P had the outright pace on this occasion and, instead, found themselves fighting for third with the Hertz Team JOTA Porsche and each other for much of the race. Frustrations did eventually boil over at Ferrari in the second half, too, when Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Fuoco made contact more than once after the sixth round of stops.
As for JOTA, its privately run Porsche 963 produced arguably the standout performance of the race en route to an impressive fourth-place finish for the British team, after herculean performances from Will Stevens, Yifei Ye and Antonio Felix da Costa.
Culminating after hours of fighting, Stevens crossed the line under a second behind Fuoco, who secured the final podium spot in the No. 50. The sister 499P came home sixth behind the No. 6 Penske Porsche.
A fifth-place finish for the No. 6 came on a day when neither Penske Porsche 963, nor the Proton example, featured in the battle for a place on the podium.. It was a quiet outing for both Peugeot 9X8s and the Cadillac V-Series.R, too. Cadillac Racing’s 11th-place finish in particular will come as a huge disappointment for all involved after showing so much promise pre-race.
The car started third after Alex Lynn’s Qualifying heroics but had to serve a 90s stop and hold for hitting the No. 7 at Turn 1. With no safety car periods during the eight hours, the team couldn’t find a way back into the race.
Team WRT dominated LMP2. Motorsport Images
In LMP2, Team WRT’s No. 41 ORECA of Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz comfortably won the drivers’ and teams’ titles with a win from 10th on the grid. It was a metronomic run from the trio to the finish, while their title rivals from United Autosports and Inter Europol endured tough outings, punctuated by setbacks in the first half of the race.
United’s No. 22 ORECA was handed a punishing 90s stop and hold for hitting the Vanwall at the exit of Turn 1 at the start, while Inter Europol’s car lost chunks of time to a technical hiccup which forced Albert Costa to stop twice and complete power cycles.
This made it a relatively comfortable run to the flag for WRT’s title-winning crew in the final outing for LMP2 as a full-season WEC category. The No. 22 finished ninth, while the Inter Europol Gibson-powered ORECA took sixth. With a lead of over 30 points before the race, it was always going to be a long shot for either United or Inter Europol to clinch the title anyway.
Behind the No. 41 WRT, the sister No. 31 car took second making it a 1-2 for the Belgian team that is set to graduate to Hypercar with BMW next year. It was a heartbreaking final hour for Sean Gelael, Ferdinand Habsburg and Robin Frijns, though. The trio didn’t put a foot wrong and lost the lead after an issue at its final stop. The No. 28 JOTA ORECA finished the night in third.
It was a day to forget for Vector Sport’s ORECA and the No. 23 United ORECA. Both had their races ruined by 90s stop-and-go penalties for running with tyre pressures below the stated limit early in the race and “gaining a huge advantage.”
Both cars were leading at the time the decisions from race control came through. Vector’s car eventually retired in the final hour with a suspected throttle sensor issue, while the No. 23 came home eighth.
The Iron Dames claimed the last ever GTE victory. Motorsport Images
The final ever GTE victory, meanwhile, went the way of the Iron Dames Porsche after a highly-entertaining eight-hour battle for the 13 cars present for the category’s swansong. It was a hugely significant result for the program and the championship, as Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy and Michelle Gatting’s performance secured the first-ever WEC class win for an all-female crew.
With the titles wrapped up by Corvette Racing in Monza, this was a straight fight with the pressure of a championship battle lifted. The gloves were off, and the category signed off its stint in the WEC, which dates back to the inaugural season in 2012, with a memorable encounter.
The D’Station Racing Aston Martin took second and Casper Stevenson was unable to catch and pass Gatting in the final hour. The No. 98 Northwest AMR Vantage made it a double-podium for the British manufacturer with a third-place finish.
“The final stint was pressured and stressful for me inside the car, but in the end, the feedback I was getting from our engineer helped made me stay calm,” Gatting said after the win. “At one point I could really see the No. 777 Aston Martin was very close. I pushed a bit more to increase the gap a bit, and in the end with the traffic I managed to increase the gap even more and feel pretty in control.
“To be honest, I just enjoyed the last ride in this car. It’s been an absolute pleasure having the opportunity to drive the Porsche this year. Finally getting this win is something we’ve wanted to achieve for a long time, and it’s quite emotional for all of us. This is what exactly what we want to achieve; we want to prove that we can compete on exactly the same terms as everybody else and we are here to win races.”
For much of the race, Iron Lynx’s No. 60 Porsche led the way, after monster stints from Matteo Cressoni and later Alessio Picariello. Sadly, though, the car had to be parked with 2h20m remaining as the team’s Bronze driver, Claudio Schivaoni, was not well enough to drive.
By regulation, the Bronze driver in each car must complete 2h20m during an eight-hour race. Thus, the team switched its driver order and held out as long as possible, but Schavoni felt unable to climb in for the end and the team parked the car early.
The GTE Am championship winners, in Corvette Racng’s final race as a factory with the C8.R, had an uncharacteristically forgettable run to seventh, but nevertheless enjoyed the final chapter of a spectacular season for the program.
Belgian outfit BMW M Team WRT has completed a first test with the M Hybrid V8 at Motorland Aragon in Spain, ahead of its 2024 FIA WEC Hypercar debut. The team, which currently competes in the FIA WEC’s LMP2 class, will run BMW’s works FIA WEC …
Belgian outfit BMW M Team WRT has completed a first test with the M Hybrid V8 at Motorland Aragon in Spain, ahead of its 2024 FIA WEC Hypercar debut.
The team, which currently competes in the FIA WEC’s LMP2 class, will run BMW’s works FIA WEC Hypercar effort next season, including at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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Following an initial rollout for the car at the BMW Group plant in Dingolfing in Germany in May, WRT tested with a crew of six BMW factory drivers in Spain last week.
“It is a big step and a step that we all have worked very hard for,” said BMW M Team WRT boss Vincent Vosse. “It is a milestone for the team. Being at Le Mans has always been a goal for the team but being at Le Mans representing a manufacturer like BMW in the top category is a dream come true. And I have the feeling that we have the best manufacturer behind us. And the best group of people – the team.
“The guys did an excellent job building and preparing the car. The rollout went well and then we had the days of testing without any issues and good feedback. It has been an important first step in the preparation for the 2024 season so I am looking forward to it and I want to say a big thank you to all the guys who are involved in this.”
At Motorland, WRT ran the car for three days with Jesse Krohn, Maxime Martin, Sheldon van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor, Dan Harper and Max Hesse all sharing the wheel.
The team gathered valuable data as the car was reported to have run flawlessly, completing significant mileage. The pictures released from the test showed the car running both day and night and in both wet and dry conditions.
“The test was an incredible experience for me,” said Krohn. “It was my first outing in a prototype and also the first collaboration with the WRT team. I had high expectations of their working methods because, as an opponent, I have experienced their strength over the years. And I must say that all my expectations were met. The team works together fantastically, and I had perhaps the smoothest test of my career.
“I quickly found my way in the car and hopefully, I was able to help the team gather important data because that’s what it’s all about in such a first test. I thoroughly enjoyed this great car experience and thank everyone involved for allowing me to contribute to the programme.”
The run in Spain was the first of multiple tests planned for WRT ahead of the 2024 FIA WEC season opener in Qatar next March. Over the course of the test programme, BMW plans to test “as many BMW M works drivers as possible” with WRT.
“The past week was a very good start to our WEC preparation programme,” commented Andreas Roos, the head of BMW M Motorsport.
“The BMW M Hybrid V8 ran smoothly during the first test drives and provided our engineers and the team with the opportunity to gain a wealth of insights right from the start. Many thanks to everyone at BMW M Motorsport in Munich and BMW M Team WRT for making this successful start possible.
“Of course, the experiences we have gathered together with BMW M Team RLL in the IMSA series races have also contributed to this. At the beginning of the LMDh programme, we deliberately chose to compete exclusively in the IMSA series first and later in the FIA WEC. We are now benefiting from this approach. Although the start was successful, there is still a lot of work to be done on the way to the first races.
“We are all highly motivated for the work throughout the rest of the year.”
While RLL’s BMW GTP program in IMSA is fully underway, the Bavarian brand’s FIA WEC Hypercar program for 2024 with Team WRT from Belgium is still coming together behind the scenes. Scheduled to debut at the start of the 2024 season, WRT’s effort …
While RLL’s BMW GTP program in IMSA is fully underway, the Bavarian brand’s FIA WEC Hypercar program for 2024 with Team WRT from Belgium is still coming together behind the scenes. Scheduled to debut at the start of the 2024 season, WRT’s effort with the M Hybrid V8 will be its first in the top class of sports car racing, after spending a decade at the top level of GT3 racing in Europe.
WRT, which is co-owned by Yves Weerts and Vincent Vosse, now has its sight set on winning Le Mans overall and a world championship in the FIA WEC. It has nothing left to prove in the GT sphere, as it had amassed 55 titles in series around the world by the end of last year.
However, putting together a Hypercar programme has been anything but an easy task for WRT, as its original plan fell apart. Initially, WRT was set to spearhead Audi Sport’s return to top-class racing as its defacto factory team, competing in the FIA WEC with a Multimatic chassis-based LMDh prototype, alongside fellow VAG brands, Porsche and Lamborghini.
But it was left scrambling when Audi switched its primary motorsport focus to Formula 1 in 2022, and confirmed that it shelved its LMDh plans in August, just weeks before the test programme was set to begin. This took WRT by surprise.
All of a sudden the team which was once the face of Audi’s GT3 customer racing programme in Europe, was forced to find a new deal with a new brand. By that point WRT had already made a significant commitment to prototype racing too, competing in the WEC and ELMS’ LMP2 categories since 2021 as part of its preparations to join the top class. Getting something together for 2024 wasn’t ideal, but quickly became the priority.
“We had a plan,” Vosse told RACER. “Exactly a year ago it was cut short because of Audi’s decision to withdraw from the programme to concentrate on Formula 1 goals.
“We had to start discussions with different manufacturers and we were lucky enough to find a way with BMW to follow our goals which includes running a team in the GT categories, following the success we had with the other brand for many years.
“It was personally a very difficult decision for me,” Vosse continued, “because we had such a great relationship with our friends from Audi, it was such a great successful partnership. There are a lot of people who became friends during those years and it was a pleasure to be a part of the achievements of Dr. Ullrich, followed by Dieter Gass and Chris Reinke at Audi Sport.
“To stop this collaboration and start something completely new with a new manufacturer, was tough.”
WRT’s transition to racing with BMW has been rapid, the team making its debut with the M4 GT3 back in January at the Dubai 24 Hours having only announced its decision to switch in October 2022. Getting the new deal together on a short call was assisted in no small part by the arrival at BMW of Andreas Roos from Audi, a man who had in-depth knowledge of the capabilities of the Belgian team.
Even with that familiarity, it was still a risk. Moving to a new manufacturer after a lengthy stint with a rival doesn’t always work. Vosse is nevertheless confident in his team’s ability to not only adapt to working with its new partner but expand its operation at the same time ahead of what promises to be the most competitive season in WEC history in 2024.
WRT had been an Audi stalwart for a number of years. Alexander Trienitz/Motorsport Images
“BMW was one of the only manufacturers that could offer us a double programme,” Vosse explained when asked about its appeal. “We are doing GT World Challenge with two Pro cars. We are doing IGTC too with two Pro cars and then Hypercar from 2024. It’s a double program and we keep our GT and LMP2 programs completely separate. BMW was one of the only manufacturers who could give us this opportunity.”
RACER understands that its commitment to GT3 and LMP2 racing looks unlikely to be affected by its Hypercar program, underlining the scale of its ambition. Current plans could see it competing on multiple fronts in ACO competition, in Hypercar, LMP2 (likely in the European Le Mans Series) and in the WEC’s GT ranks once GT3 cars become eligible next year.
The potential for WRT to continue with its LMP2 program could be particularly significant, and see it as an early player in the customer Hypercar arena. How early that move comes, depends principally on the state of the marketplace once it has its feet under the table in the top class.
Thus, seats in all of WRT’s cars, in every category, are hot property, with so many aspirational drivers looking to step up to the WEC’s top class in the coming years. Currently, Vosse is coy about who will drive in its Hypercars next season.
“We have always had a great relationship with drivers. But this is a category where you have to find a balance between experience, speed, knowing championships, and knowing the team, it’s a bit of a compromise. It’s not just in my hands, it’s also in BMW’s, let’s see. But I don’t think you would be very surprised with who we have,” he said.
There is still a long way to go though before it begins racing in Hypercar, almost a full season. Currently the first of its WEC cars is being built in Munich, before being moved to WRT’s LMP2 base, where the program will be run from.
Testing with the M Hybrid V8 is set to begin in May, with the initial rollout of its first car. Details on the venue and the number of days it will be running are still being finaliaed.
Luckily, WRT is already familiar with the M Hybrid V8, having sent staff members to Daytona to support RLL’s effort at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January, where the car made its global race debut. How much further WRT’s collaboration with RLL will go remains to be seen.
Will WRT head stateside to support RLL’s IMSA title bid? Will RLL start racing in Europe to assist WRT?
“You never know,” Vosse told RACER. “Motorsport always springs a surprise. At the moment, we are fully committed and focused on our WEC programme, and I think RLL is fully focused on IMSA.
“And of course, you will see some similar faces in both championships because yeah, it’s not only RLL, it’s not only WRT, there are some people from BMW who are committed to the programme that you will see in the in both championships. But at the moment, so far, the discussion has been quite clear, we will fully commit to the world championship.”
