Strong Finish to ’26 Season Bodes Well for Future
By John Oreovicz
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Staying the course would have been the easy thing for BMW to do. Instead, the German carmaker shifted administration of its Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) project in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship from Team RLL to WRT, its longtime international racing partner team.
On paper, the results may look similar; BMW finished fourth in the GTP manufacturer’s championship, as it has every year since the BMW M Hybrid V8 (and the GTP platform) debuted in 2023. But everyone involved in the program is convinced that genuine progress and growth was achieved in BMW M Team WRT’s first year competing in America.
“It’s been a long road since September last year,” said WRT owner and team principal Vincent Vosse. “We are based in Europe, so it’s not like just adding a championship. Yeah, it was a big challenge. It was a hell of a challenge, but you can say that it was a success.”
Based in Belgium, BMW M Team WRT has fielded a pair of BMW M Hybrid V8s in the FIA World Endurance Championship since 2024 and is enjoying its most successful WEC campaign to date so far this year. BMW sits second in the manufacturer standings with one race remaining and each of its cars have earned a trip to victory lane.
The improved WEC showing can be linked to BMW’s mid-2025 decision to streamline its worldwide prototype racing programs under the one WRT umbrella. For the IMSA side of things, W Racing Team America was formed to operate out of facilities on the Haas Motorsport campus in Kannapolis, North Carolina, preparing the Nos. 24 and 25 BMW M Hybrid V8s.
It was a race against the clock over the winter, and BMW M Team WRT personnel admitted they were still running behind when the 2026 season opened in January with the Rolex 24 At Daytona. But Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde, IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup driver Robin Frijns, and Rene Rast boosted morale with a third-place finish in the No 24 car.
“For sure it was a tough start, due to a late decision on our side in terms of how we continue with the IMSA championship,” said Andreas Roos, head of BMW M Motorsport. “Late in the year 2025, WRT could start to build everything up and start to ramp up. What they built up there in this short amount of time they had, it’s incredible.
“But on the other hand, we know WRT and what they are able to do,” he continued. “This is why we chose them also as a partner for our (GTP) program, and we are super happy with what we see now. Having a podium in Daytona showed already on which level they can operate and what we can do.”
Another important change to BMW’s philosophy in 2026 was to have WRT mainstays Vanthoor and van der Linde remain in full-time driving roles in both championships. They were split between the two IMSA cars in 2025 but were teamed together for 2026 in the No. 24 BMW. They’ve established themselves as one of sports car racing’s most dynamic young driver pairings.
BMW veterans Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann shared the No. 25 car, joined by Kevin Magnussen for Michelin Endurance Cup races, with Raffaele Marciello providing additional support at the Rolex 24.
The No. 25 car achieved the best results in the middle of the season, taking third place in the StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (and becoming the first non-GTP race winner to win the IMSA Michelin Sustainability in Racing Award) and second at the always-hectic Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic, a podium finish Eng called “a strategic masterpiece.”
“I think we were a bit unlucky during the season with one or the other result where we for sure could have looked better, and where we did mistakes or whatever,” Roos observed, citing the race at Road America as a missed opportunity.
“But I would say it’s clearly a trend of progress, and over the year you could clearly see which steps we did. Working together between the WEC championship and the IMSA championship – with the teams, with the people, and having drivers doing both championships – clearly helped to improve the whole program.”
Toward the end of the year, BMW M Team WRT began getting a better handle on single-lap speed. The No. 24 car qualified third for the final three races and ended the season very strongly, with Vanthoor and van der Linde leading at Road America before brake issues took them out. They earned a convincing victory at the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (BMW’s second in three years at IMS), then claimed second with Frijns in the Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
“I think it’s nice to end it on a high,” Vanthoor said. “Obviously, we would have loved to win today but did the best we could. We have to settle for second, but don’t forget that maybe one year back, we built the team in a couple months and arrived in Daytona just about on time. To now see the progress we did during the season, to end with a win in Indy, a second place here, I think it’s a great achievement, a great upward-trending line. Hopefully we can keep building on that for next year.”
Van der Linde was in complete agreement with his teammate. Now that WRT has a year of experience in America, gaining greater knowledge of the tracks and the subtle differences between competing in WEC and the WeatherTech Championship, he’s eager to get back to work.
“I’m just proud of the team,” van der Linde said. “If we look at the trend from last year, how much we’ve improved as a team, that’s something to take with us. I’m hoping we can take this momentum into Daytona next year and try to fight for the championship. That’s clearly our goal. It was our goal this year as well, but too many niggles along the way, if you can call it that.
“It was a learning year for us. Next year I’m pretty sure we’ll be fighting for something very, very good.”