BMW Motorsport has named their nineteen factory drivers for the 2022 season, and the roster is largely unchanged from 2021. The key role for the drivers will be racing the M4 GT3 in various championships and races around the world, most notably the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring here in the U.S., as well as other big endurance races in Europe like the Nürburgring 24 Hour and Spa 24 Hour. Many of them will also play a crucial role in the development and testing of the LMDh prototype that will be raced in 2023.
American drivers on the team include John Edwards and Connor De Phillippi, who will spearhead the BMW Team RLL M4 GT3 effort in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, as well as BMW Junior driver Neil Verhagen. Besides the U.S., there are nine other countries represented among the driver crew. “2022 is a year of numerous new challenges for BMW M Motorsport – so it was all the more important for us to count on experience, class and continuity when selecting the BMW M works drivers,” said Frank van Meel, CEO of BMW M GmbH. “In the season ahead, the new BMW M4 GT3 will go up against top-quality opposition in the world’s greatest GT races for the first time. Development and testing of our BMW M LMDh is proceeding apace, with the aim of battling for overall wins at the major classic races in the IMSA series from 2023. For this important project, we need drivers who really know BMW M Motorsport, the cars, the engineers, the race series and circuits, and who can concentrate fully on regularly squeezing the best possible performance from the overall package. We are convinced that we are ready for the 2022 season with our line-up.”
The full roster of drivers is listed below. The only two drivers no longer on the roster from 2021 are Martin Tomczyk, who has retired from racing, and Maximilian Günther, who has moved to Nissan in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.—David Haueter
- Philipp Eng, Austria
- Augusto Farfus, Brazil
- Bruno Spengler, Canada
- Jesse Krohn, Finland
- Timo Glock, Germany
- Max Hesse, Germany
- Jens Klingmann, Germany
- Marco Wittmann, Germany
- Jake Dennis, Great Britain
- Daniel Harper, Great Britain
- Alexander Sims, Great Britain
- Nick Yelloly, Great Britain
- Nick Catsburg, Netherlands
- Stef Dusseldorp, Netherlands
- Sheldon van der Linde, South Africa
- Erik Johansson, Sweden
- John Edwards, USA
- Connor De Phillippi, USA
- Neil Verhagen, USA
[Photo courtesy LAT Images.]