The FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) opened the 2026 season with a six-hour race at the Imola circuit in Italy. The season was originally supposed to open at Qatar in the Middle East but had to change plans with the ongoing war with Iran threatening the entire region. The Qatar race has been rescheduled for October.
BMW has four entries in FIA WEC this year, with the #15 and #20 M Hybrid V8 cars in the Hypercar class, and the #32 and #69 M4 GT3 EVO entries in the LMGT3 class. All four entries are run by Team WRT, who were stretched thin on drivers for the Hypercar entries at Imola, with the IMSA Long Beach race on the same weekend.
Rene Rast and Robin Frijns finished in fifth in Hypercar.
None of the BMW entries looked all that competitive in the practice sessions preceding qualifying, and the WRT team had to replace the engine in the #15 car on Wednesday due to concerning data irregularities. All four of the BMW entries made it into the Hyperpole qualifying sessions that only includes the top 10 fastest cars in initial qualifying. In Hyperpole, the #20 ended up in ninth and the #15 in 10th, with the pole going to the #51 Ferrari. In LMGT3, the M4 GT3 EVOs qualified in fourth (#69) and fifth (#32), with the class pole going to the #10 McLaren.
In the race, the Hypercar class came down to a battle between Toyota and Ferrari, with the #8 Toyota ultimately getting the overall win ahead of the #51 Ferrari. The #20 BMW of Robin Frijns and René Rast put in a solid performance to finish fifth, despite serving a penalty. “With fifth place, we achieved a good result and important points for the championship in the end,” said Rast. “Unfortunately, we had to serve a drive-through penalty during the race. At that point, we were ahead of the Toyota that ended up on the podium, so without that penalty more would certainly have been possible. But to do that, you have to do a perfect job, and unfortunately, we didn’t quite manage that today. We need to improve, eliminate mistakes, and add a bit more pace.” The #15 car of Raffaele Marciello and Kevin Magnussen finished seventh.
The #69 M4 GT3 EVO wore livery commemorating the Tic Tac sponsored E30 M3 that raced in DTM.
In the LMGT3 class, Anthony McIntosh put in a great first stint in the #69 M4 GT3 EVO that he shares with Parker Thompson and Dan Harper, moving up into second place in the first hour. As the race progressed, the battle for LMGT3 came down to the #69 BMW, the #10 McLaren that started from pole and the #33 Corvette. McLaren looked set to take the win but slowed with a technical issue in the final hour, which allowed Harper to take the lead. It got tight in the end, as Nicky Catsburg closed the gap to Harper, but Harper held on for the win. The #32 M4 GT3 EVO of Augusto Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Gelael also had a strong race, finishing fifth, despite some issues with the car.
Parker Thompson (left), Dan Harper (middle) and Anthony McIntosh celebrate their win.
The success of the #69 car was certainly due in large part to the trio of McIntosh, Thompson and Harper competing in the Asian Le Mans Series together in a WRT-entered M4 GT3 EVO over the winter months. It allowed McIntosh and Thompson to get familiar with the car and the team before the FIA WEC season started. “Victory on my debut with Team WRT and the BMW M4 GT3 EVO in the FIA WEC,” said Thompson. “This is an incredible day! I thought it would take us the whole season to achieve this goal, but now we’ve cleared this hurdle on our very first attempt. My stints were good, I did what I had to do: After Anthony put us in a fantastic position, I handed over to Dan so he could do what he does best – bring the race home. We had a bit of luck, and I feel for the McLaren crew. I know what it feels like to retire while leading, and it’s not nice. For us, this victory still feels fantastic.”
The #32 M4 GT3 EVO of Augusto Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Gelael finished fifth.
The #69 crew is going to be running with a different livery in every FIA WEC race this year, with each livery celebrating an iconic livery from BMWs racing history. At Imola, the car ran with livery commemorating the Tic Tac sponsored E30 M3 that raced in DTM. We can’t wait to see the livery that’s on the car in the next race, which will be at the Spa-Franchorchamps circuit in Belgium on May 7th-9th.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy BMW]
