‘Give us time’ with IMSA program

BMW M Team WRT team principal Vincent Vosse has called for patience for the program’s efforts in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

This year’s Rolex 24 marks the first official race for Team WRT’s expanded efforts into IMSA’s Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) category. The end of last season in IMSA saw BMW end its 17-year partnership with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, opening up the opportunity to expand its collaboration with Vosse’s team, having already developed a strong relationship together in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

“If you compare us to the American teams which are here, we are complete rookies,” Vosse told Motorsport.com.

It’s an honest assessment by the 54-year-old Belgian, with the team going through a number of challenges getting up to speed at Daytona’s 3.56-mile speedway road course. In opening practice, the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 suffered a hybrid problem. Following that, qualifying offered little to inspire, with the Nos. 24 and 25 entries qualifying ninth and 10th out of 11 cars in class. Evening practice saw the duo finish fifth and sixth at more than 0.7s off the pace.

There could be a shade of optimism, however, as final practice on Friday saw the No. 24 machine finish third overall.

Another element to the program is understanding that Team WRT has been here before. In 2019-20, they ran a Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) effort with Speedstar Motorsport and Audi Canada for the Rolex 24. While the first year was a struggle, they managed to earn a third-place class finish in their return the following season.

“That was our only experience in IMSA,” Vosse said. “So, yeah, we start from zero. Of course, we have our experience, we have some experienced people who were in IMSA last year and are new to the team.

“But all of this, it has to click together and it has to work. And of course, it’s our first race, so give us a bit of time and we should be patient. And we should study and take the point of the first race, take what we can take here and then think how to improve, what to improve for the next one.”

Vosse added that there isn’t a definitive timeline on how long it will take.

“It’s not really a question of how much time,” Vosse said. “It’s, ‘What do we need?’ And what we need, it’s a compilation of things.

“And you need to put everything together. It can take four races, it can take 12 races, it just depends how things are going. We know what to do. “It’s just that it’s a new team. Even if you have very experienced people in the team, the team like it works now, it’s doing its first race. I have no problem to say that we need a bit of time.”

BMW M Motorsport boss Andreas Roos quipped that the aim for a first victory would be in IMSA’s crown jewel event this weekend.

“It will be more difficult, we’ll have to see,” Roos told Motorsport.com. “On the other hand, in the IMSA championship we’ve often seen that anything is possible, especially in the last two hours, the last half hour. Therefore, we will certainly fight until the end and we are clearly here to win races. So, we’re not coming here with any expectations; just being there is everything.

“Even under the difficult conditions, challenges with a new team, a new car, a tight schedule, and so on, our goal is still very clear: we want to win here.”

While bullish on this not being another year of learning, Roos quickly said, “No, absolutely not.”

However, he also understands what the program is up against.

“We’re also realistic, and one has to be realistic,” Roos continued. “The competition is incredibly strong here, and there are also many players who have switched to a different network team, where everything might be the same. They naturally have a slight advantage, but we’ve made the decision, and now we need to close the gap as quickly as possible.”

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— The Motorsport.com Team