There are a lot of important sportscar endurance races in the world, from the Rolex 24 at Daytona to the Spa and Nürburgring 24-hour races and the 12 Hours of Sebring, but the 24 Hours of Le Mans is the biggest of them all. It’s the race that all drivers want to win most.
Le Mans is important as a standalone race but is also the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, with previous rounds having taken place at Imola in Italy and Spa in Belgium. BMW M Motorsport will be represented by four cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with two cars each in the Hypercar and LMGT3 classes. All four cars will be run by BMW M Team WRT.
BMW M Team WRT has some momentum coming into Le Mans, as they finished one-two in the previous FIA WEC race at Spa in early May, with the win going to the #20 M Hybrid V8 of Robin Frijns, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde. “Momentum is gold in motorsport, and that’s what we have right now,” said van der Linde. “I expect our updated BMW M Hybrid V8 to be a big asset in terms of performance, especially around a track like this. Everyone is super-motivated and in the best possible spirit going into the event. We hope to be able to convert that into our first Le Mans podium – and maybe even fight for the win.”
The #15 M Hybrid V8 will be driven by Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor, and is coming off a second-place finish at Spa. If BMW can manage to win overall at Le Mans, it will be the manufacturers first outright since 1999, when the V12 LMR prototype driven by Yannick Dalmas, Pierluigi Martini and “Smokin’ Jo” Winkelhock took the overall victory. In the last two Le Mans races with the M Hybrid V8 cars, BMW hasn’t finished higher than 17th, and Ferrari has won the last three Le Mans races. Only four different manufacturers have won Le Mans overall since 2010 (Audi, Porsche, Toyota and Ferrari).
BMW is going for their first win since 1999 with the V12 LMR.
BMW will also be gunning for a win in the LMGT3 class with a pair of M4 GT3 EVO entries. The #32 car will be driven by Darren Leung, Sean Gelael and Augusto Farfus, while the #69 car will be driven by Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and Dan Harper. The #69 car has been running with retro-inspired livery in each of the WEC races and will have a theme for Le Mans that’s inspired by the McLaren F1 GTR. That car has already won their class in the WEC this year, as they were victories in the opening round at Imola. McIntosh and Thompson also won the Pro-Am class in the Italian GT races at Vallelunga last month.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans will take place on the weekend of June 12th -14th. You can watch it live on demand with FIAWEC+, which is the official streaming platform of the FIA WEC, or on the MotorTrend TV channel that’s available on streaming TV services such as YouTubeTV, Hulu+ or HBO Max. You can also follow live timing on the FIA WEC website.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy BMW]
