24 Hours of Le Mans 2024 – The outlook for manufacturers: BMW
The first free practice sessions of the 92nd edition will start this Wednesday: an opportunity to assess, before the serious things begin, what the about fourteen manufacturers engaged in Hypercar and LMGT3 can hope for. BMW, for its part, is having a good start to the season for a brand that is making its return to the WEC.
We hadn’t seen BMW in endurance racing since the GTE-Pro era. The 2018-2019 Super Season welcomed the M8 GTE, for an official program that fizzled out. Since then, nothing in WEC: attention had shifted to SRO in particular.
And then, when the ACO and IMSA gave birth to the Hypercar, the Munich-based manufacturer turned to the LMDh platform, entrusting the chassis design to Dallara. The beginnings were challenging in IMSA last year, with many reliability issues. But victory still came, at Watkins Glen.
This preparation for the WEC, especially for Le Mans, was done while the performance of the M V8 Hybrid over 24 Hours is still very improvable. The Test Day seems to have gone well for the two German cars, but the real answers will come during the first tests.
For now, BMW is in 5th place in the championship and can boast of having scored points in every race. Imola has been the best performance so far for the Bavarians, with car N°20 finishing 6th. The car is overall well designed and, under the guidance of WRT, the team’s operations pave the way for optimism about the progress to be made.
The opportunity was indeed too good not to show off a little: car number 20 sports a special (and very successful) livery to celebrate its big comeback in the top category. This is the legacy of the V12 LMR, winner in 1999, that is at stake and must be honored.
And in LMGT3, the chances of victory are even greater: the Manthey PureX (Porsche N°91) is leading overall, but the two BMWs from Team WRT are hot on its heels. The best illustration was the double at Imola, in the order N°31 and N°46. Who knows what would have happened at Spa if the N°46 had not been involved in a collision with the Porsche Jota N°38. And the N°31 in the horrific crash of the Cadillac.
At Le Mans, this same No. 46 includes a certain Valentino Rossi in its ranks. The Italian, accompanied by Ahmad Al-Harty and the Belgian Maxime Martin, could achieve a very rare feat: becoming the winner of Le Mans after nine Grand Prix motorcycle titles. Everyone will be there to stop him!
