Austin. BMW M Team WRT showed strong pace with both BMW M Hybrid V8s at the third-to-last race of the season in the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC), battling for a podium position over long stretches. The #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 fell back to 14th place late in the race due to two penalties. The sister car, number 15, achieved its best result of the season so far, finishing in eighth place. In the LMGT3 class, the #31 BMW M4 GT3 crossed the finish line in fifth place. The number 46 car, after a strong performance, retired shortly before the end with a technical failure.
Already in qualifying, it was evident that the BMW M Hybrid V8 was well-suited to the Circuit of The Americas (COTA). For the first time in its debut season, both cars made it into Hyperpole. Starting from seventh and eighth on the grid, René Rast and Marco Wittmann (both GER) had excellent starts and quickly moved up to fourth and fifth positions. Rast managed to close in on the leaders by the end of his second stint. His teammates Robin Frijns (NED) and Sheldon van der Linde (RSA) also held their own in the battle for the first podium in the Hypercar class. However, two penalties in the final phase of the race dropped the number 20 car back to 14th place. The #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Wittmann, Raffaele Marciello (SUI) and Dries Vanthoor (BEL) finished in eighth place – the team’s best result of the season. In São Paulo (BRA), the trio finished ninth.
In the LMGT3 class, the #31 BMW M4 GT3, driven by Darren Leung (GBR), Sean Gelael (INA), and Augusto Farfus (BRA), made a strong comeback from tenth place despite a drive-through penalty, finishing in fifth position. The number 46 car, driven by Ahmad Al Harthy (OMA), Valentino Rossi (ITA), and Maxime Martin (BEL), moved up from 15th to fourth place before having to retire with a power steering issue around 15 minutes before the end.
Reactions after the Lone Star Le Mans:
Andreas Roos (Head of BMW M Motorsport): “It was a weekend of ups and downs. From the first practice sessions, we showed strong performance, proving that our BMW M Hybrid V8 was in the mix with top lap times here. It was also great to have both cars in the highly competitive Hyperpole for the first time. I think the start of the race showed that our car is not only fast over one lap but that we can also maintain a consistent pace in the race and even fight with the Ferraris. Unfortunately, mistakes were made towards the end of the race that we need to analyse, as they must not happen when aiming for top results. On the positive side, we can take away that the car’s performance was good, and the hard work on developing the car has paid off. We have definitely made a step forward in terms of performance. A big thank you to the entire team for making this possible with their hard work. In LMGT3, we didn’t quite have the performance we had hoped for to compete at the front over the weekend. Still, with a smooth race, good results would have been possible. Unfortunately, the number 46 car suffered a technical failure, and the number 31 was prevented from achieving a better result due to penalties.”
Vincent Vosse (Team Principal BMW M Team WRT): “Of course, we are not really happy with the final result but there are also some very positive things. We were among the only ones who could keep up with the Ferrari for the first half of the race. Now we have to learn how to do it until the end of the race without having any mistakes. But let’s be positive and focus on the next race which is in two weeks in Fuji. In LMGT3, it has been a disappointing result. We did what we could with car 31. We had a technical failure on car 46, we will investigate why. It was a power steering issue. Unfortunately, we lost some points again to the championship leaders. We have to see how we can improve this in Fuji.”
Raffaele Marciello (BMW M Team WRT, #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, 8th place): “Austin has shown that for sure we have gained speed. We were able to fight more this weekend. We finished in the lead lap, so this is positive. It was the first time we were able to achieve it. We are going into the right direction and we got good points. We are improving and now let’s see what Fuji brings.”
René Rast (BMW M Team WRT, #20 BMW M Hybrid V8, 14th place): “On the one hand, it was positive that we had the pace to drive in the top five 5 and to even fight for the podium positions. How the race ended, however, is of course frustrating. Two penalties knocked us out of the points in the end. We’ll attack again in Fuji, and we hope to be just as competitive there as we have been here.”
Sean Gelael (Team WRT, #31 BMW M4 GT3, 5th place): “It’s been a very up and down race. We finished in P5 and got some points, but unfortunately we have been behind the two Porsches we are fighting for the championship. But we did not lose so much points so I think it was damage limitations. We lost around 50 seconds in mistakes and unfortunate events. So obviously the potential is there and we will fight again in Fuji and in Bahrain. We still have two rounds to go and the last round is 1.5 points.”
Ahmad Al Harthy (Team WRT, #46 BMW M4 GT3, DNF): “What an amazing job by everybody in the team to get us climbing up the entire time, from P15 to P4. We kept our nose clean as much as we could, we kept the pit stops clean, we kept away from penalties. When you get a mechanical problem, it happens, this is motorsports. And it hurts when it’s 15 minutes to go. Now Fuji comes fast and hopefully we can get a good result there.”