Метка: Dries Vanthoor

BMW needs upgrades to fight regularly at the front in WEC next year

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


BMW driver Dries Vanthoor believes the German manufacturer needs to upgrade its LMDh car in order to be a consistent frontrunner in the World Endurance Championship in 2025.

The BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh has achieved limited success since it made its debut in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2023, while an expansion to the Hypercar class of the WEC this year has also been only modestly fruitful.

BMW has so far been reluctant to make use of the so-called evo jokers on the M Hybrid V8, with motorsport boss Andreas Roos ruling out any updates for the foreseeable future at Le Mans 24 Hours in June.

However, Vanthoor believes there are some weaknesses which BMW needs to address over the winter in order to make the car more competitive in the WEC next year.

“I do think it’s necessary [to use evo jokers] but we are using them wisely as we only have a few in the homologation of the car,” the Belgian told Motorsport.com ahead to the Fuji race, where he finished second along with team-mates Marco Wittmann and Raffaele Marciello.

“We just want to use them as best as we can. We really use them for the big aspects of our car.”

Prior to BMW’s breakthrough result in Japan, the WRT-run factory team had achieved a best finish of sixth at the Imola round of the championship in May.

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Asked if he was confident about regularly fighting at the front next year if the BMW LMDh remained in its current specification, Vanthoor replied: “No, I do think we need some upgrades to be able to do that and that is what we have to work on now.

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

“Let’s see which [upgrade] we have to do first but I do think we need to do that.

“The people who are working in those areas together with us as drivers, doing feedback back and forth, know well enough which areas we have to improve on and probably will go in that area.”

As with other LMDh and LMH manufacturers, BMW is allowed a total of five evo jokers over the initial five-year lifespan of the M Hybrid V8.

Not every change made to the car counts towards an evo joker, and manufacturers aren’t required to disclose the use of their allocation publicly.

In the WEC, evo jokers have to be applied for to the rulemakers, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and the FIA, and are allowed at their discretion.

Vanthoor identified brakes as one area where BMW needs to work on over the winter to improve performance in race trim.

“We have had quite some brake issues the whole season,” the two-time Nurburgring 24 Hour winner revealed. “It’s a big topic for us, which hurts us a lot especially in the races.

“I think on one lap in qualifying, you don’t really feel this issue because nothing happens.

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

Photo by: Andreas Beil

“But in the long run it always tends to hurt us a lot. This for sure is the top three of which we should do first. It will be one of them.”

BMW, however, maintains that it doesn’t need to use any evo jokers in order to improve its prospects in the WEC. Its motorsport chief Roos insists that there is a lot of untapped potential in the M Hybrid V8 that the team can extract before it can consider bringing any updates.

He said: “You see that we still make progress. When you see where we were in Qatar [in March] and where we are now getting, you clearly see that there is a lot of potential in the car.

“This is what I always said when there comes up a topic about jokers. As long as we don’t extract the full potential of the car there is no need to take a joker.

“I still believe we have potential in the car which we still have to get out of it. As long as we can do this [there is no need for evo jokers]. We at the moment still have hard work to do and we will get better and better.”

BMW managed to follow up its podium at the Fuji WEC round with a 1-2 finish in the six-hour IMSA enduro at Indianapolis on 22 September.

It marked the second success for the German marque with the M Hybrid V8 after inheriting victory at Watkins Glen last year following disqualification for on-the-road winner Porsche.



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Vanthoor claims Kubica pushed him off on purpose in race-ending Le Mans clash

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


BMW driver Dries Vanthoor believes AF Corse Ferrari rival Robert Kubica deliberately pushed him off the track while trying to lap him during the night at last weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours.

Vanthoor has expressed his disappointment at what he believes was a lack of respect from the one-time Formula 1 race winner after he was sent to the medical centre for check-ups due to the sizeable impact from their collision.

Speaking on the ‘Over the limit’ podcast he jointly hosts with brother and Porsche factory driver Laurens, Vanthoor said: «I personally think yes, that he did it on purpose because the way he tried to defend himself was wrong.

«The way he did not care about me after the crash, or did not show any respect or just human being to me, also showed to me that it was on purpose. Just not caring, just not coming to see how I was doing.

«I had a small concussion, I have a little thing on my left foot. Not doing any effort to even send a text and know how I am doing [was disappointing].

 

«If I had a crash with someone and I would know he is hurt or he has to go the medical centre, you would just be respectful. I know we are racing and we want to race hard. This was just very unrespectful [sic] and for me not done and something you don’t do in racing. It’s completely wrong.

«You should show respect. We all want to be safe, it’s the number one priority of every organiser, FIA, ACO, SRO. It’s the number one priority in racing.

«Even if he was pissed off, even if it was my own mistake of the crash, which let’s be completely straight, it wasn’t at all, I would have still said something.

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

«I would have said, ‘sorry mate, I turned into you’. But he just turned to the right like nobody was there and I was driving there, driving completely straight.»

Vanthoor was trying to stay on the lead lap in his WRT-run #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 in the ninth hour, having just switched from wet tyres to slicks, when he encountered the race-leading #83 satellite Ferrari 499P of Kubica on the Mulsanne straight.

The Belgian driver missed the second chicane on cold tyres and had to take to the escape road before rejoining the track, putting him in the thick of the fight with Kubica — who previously raced for WRT in LMP2 — and the #92 Porsche GT3 car.

But as the ex-F1 driver tried to jump both approaching the braking zone for the right-hand Mulsanne Corner, he jinked to the right and clipped Vanthoor’s BMW, pitching him head-on into the barriers on the left-hand side of the road.

Such was the intensity of the impact that the car bounced back and skated to the inside side of the track, before coming to a rest with heavy damage to the front-end.

The collision between Vanthoor and Kubica marked a premature end to BMW’s race, with the sister #20 car having already been sent back to the garage following a separate accident when Robin Frijns crashed at the Ford Chicane.

The stewards deemed Kubica guilty of causing the crash and handed him a 30-second stop/go penalty, a sanction that was described as too lenient by WRT boss Vincent Vosse.

Explaining the moments in the lead-up to the crash, Vanthoor said: «Going into the second chicane, there was a Ford just in front of us.

«So I was like, f**k I need to get by this Ford. So we braked for the corner, just behind the Ford. I braked at the same point as him.

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

Photo by: BMW AG

«But I was like ‘I need to get this Ford between us [so] I don’t have the blue flag’ because he needs to pass the Ford first. But I was on the inside on cold tyres on the wet part of the track and I didn’t make the corner.

«I went on power again [after the chicane] and he had a run on me again.

«I tried to use the Porsche to slow him down, but it didn’t work because he had such a run, so I was fair in that way to make the space and let go the Porsche by to not make it dangerous.

«And unfortunately, he decided to make it more dangerous and pushed me off the road. That was it actually.»

Vanthoor revealed that he received a lot of hate messages in the aftermath of the accident on social media, with many accusing him of not respecting blue flags when a faster Ferrari was on his tail.

While he did admit that he had been instructed to do everything it took to stay on the lead lap to remain in the hunt for a top result, the 2017 GTE Am class winner at Le Mans claimed he had enough time under the regulations before letting Kubica through.

«They [BMW] told me it’s going to be crucial to keep the car behind to stay on the lead lap, because when you are not on the lead lap, unless there is a safety car then it’s very difficult to get your lap back,» he added.

«When you are lap down, it’s very very tough to impossible to do something.

«For all the haters who said ‘why you exceeded blue flags’, I saw the replays and I saw there was a blue flag. But when you are in a battle or in the moment I honestly did not see [it].

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor

Photo by: BMW AG

«And even if I had seen it, I wouldn’t have done anything because the rule is in WEC you have one sector or two time to let somebody go for blue flags.

«Maybe I fully did not respect the rule, but the rule said I had two sectors to let somebody by. I didn’t try to let him by, but people can stop saying this because it’s bullshit.»

On his part, Kubica denied that he caused the incident on purpose, stating that any attempt at touching another car at high speed would have jeopardised his own chances for victory.

«Firstly, I’m not the sort of person who would swerve into another car at 300kph, leading in a race and with 18 hours to go,» he said in an interview with Mikolaj Sokol for Motowizja.

«By swerving into him I would be the one risking ending up in the barriers on the right. That’s the first argument.

«The second argument is that if it had been me [causing the collision], my car should have moved much earlier, not just after contact. And that was not the case.»

Kubica also hit back at Vanthoor for not respecting blue flags or letting him by easily when he was about to drop a lap down, saying: «I come from a championship where you have respect for other drivers, especially the leaders, especially when you are being lapped.

«On the other hand, there are also championships, and apparently that’s what Dries races in, where the blue flags and the rules and regulations don’t give a damn [about them]. I’m fortunate enough to have grown up in those first championships.

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica

Photo by: Marc Fleury

«However, there are drivers in slower cars who want to prove themselves at all costs. I don’t know why.

«I know Dries has been instructed to stay on the lead lap at all costs. Well if someone tells me to jump from the eighth floor, for example, an engineer, I won’t do it. But apparently there are drivers who would do it.»

The #83 499P Kubica shared with Ferrari factory drivers Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye retired with just over three hours to run due to hybrid issues.

You can listen in full to the Vanthoor brothers’ podcast here.

Additional reporting by Tomasz Kalinski

Watch: 2024 Le Mans 24hrs Analysis — Ferrari Rain Supreme



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BMW’s Vanthoor frustrated by «harsh red flag» call in Imola WEC qualifying

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The Belgian was pushing for a place in the Hyperpole session ultimately topped by Antonio Fuoco in a Ferrari top three sweep when he rotated the WRT-run M Hybrid V8 on the exit of the fast Piratella left-hander.
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Having avoided contact with the wall and got going again, Vanthoor felt the session was red flagged «a bit too early» and wants clarification on the decision that means he will start 13th in the car he shares with Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann. 

«It didn’t really give me a chance,» Vanthoor told Motorsport.com. «I was still rolling, I didn’t stop the car, I didn’t have any issue. I was just rolling down and trying to go on power again.

«And before I knew it, it was a red flag. For me, it’s a bit of a harsh red flag. It cost us. 

«At the end of the day, I ruined a bit my own session with making the mistake. But of course it doesn’t really help when you don’t even have the chance to even get back [on track]. 

«It’s harsh, but I think we should learn from it, we should look into it why it came so early.»

He added: «I’m a bit annoyed that I made the mistake first of all. The lap I was on – it only was half a lap, true, but it felt like a really good lap until that moment. So it’s annoying.»

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

WRT boss Vincent Vosse was equally frustrated by the red flag call, as off-track moments for Matt Campbell’s Porsche and Brendon Hartley in Hyperpole were covered by yellow rather than red flags.

Vanthoor had set the second-fastest time in Saturday morning’s third practice session, and Vosse said «we would expect him to be yes, in the top 10». His team-mate Rene Rast qualified the sister #20 BMW in seventh. 

«Probably they [race control] were surprised that he was able to keep on going,» Vosse remarked.

Vanthoor said the expected difficulty of overtaking at Imola will mean «strategy will probably come a lot into place» as the #15 crew seeks to recover and Vosse conceded that the qualifying mishap «will make a difference because here, your track position would be quite important».

But while acknowledging «it will for sure not be easy, it’s not easy to overtake here», Vanthoor expressed optimism that the car will be able to recover. 

«We’ve got a good racecar, we’ve got good race pace, so I do think there is a possibility to come back,» he predicted. 

«It’s a six-hour race, a lot can happen, especially with the GT cars we have to try to overtake. So I do feel quite confident that we will be able to get back quite fast. It will not be easy, but I think for sure it’s possible.»

#20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Sheldon Van Der Linde, Robin Frijns, Rene Rast

#20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Sheldon Van Der Linde, Robin Frijns, Rene Rast

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Rast admitted to making «a small mistake in the last corner» that he believes potentially cost him sixth place to Kamui Kobayashi’s Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar.

But triple DTM champion Rast was encouraged by the progress BMW has made since the first outing for its LMDh car in the WEC in Qatar, where the Bavarian marque languished in 15th and 16th after qualifying. 

«We can be very happy with what we have achieved already in the second WEC race, being in the Hyperpole is obviously more than we expected after Qatar,» he replied when asked by Motorsport.com whether there was any more potential in the car. 

«The goal should be to collect points. Realistically, we can be in the top 10 tomorrow, we have a good pace in the long runs.»

Asked whether its car is more suited to Imola than Qatar, Vosse stated: «We’ve been working with BMW, we’ve been working very hard since Qatar on making steps. We were surprised by our situation in Qatar and this looks a little bit more where we have to start.»

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WEC’s Dries Vanthoor to make British GT debut at Silverstone 500

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Vanthoor will contest the three-hour race as a one-off for Century Motorsport aboard its BMW M4 GT3 on the 26-28 April, amid WEC duties for the German manufacturer in the hypercar class.

The drive was originally for Dan Harper, but in March Leung’s former co-driver secured a last-minute call-up for the British GT season in one of Century’s other BMWs — so, Vanthoor was eventually selected for Silverstone.

“It will be special,” said Vanthoor of his forthcoming debut, which will be live and free on Motorsport.tv. “Looking at last year’s performance from Darren and Dan, there’s not much we can do to do better than that, so for sure we will try and do the same.”

Silverstone will be Leung’s first British GT race since clinching the championship in the 2023 season finale having skipped this year’s opening weekend at Oulton Park.

It came after he and Harper originally decided to not defend their crown, but a one-off round at Silverstone was always the plan until the 23-year-old secured a seat for the season.

“I would love to have done the Silverstone 500 with Dan,” said Leung, who won the race with Harper in 2023.

“Circumstances changed and we had to assess other options. Fortunately, BMW has a very deep pool of factory drivers and Dries was available for Silverstone.”

Vanthoor should still bring a lot of qualities though as the 25-year-old is a three-time GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup champion and 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours winner in the LMGTE-Am class.

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

“Speed-wise, he’s top tier,” added Leung. “But I’ve always admired his approach. I know he will be flat out at every opportunity and that’s something I really appreciate.

“We’re not racing for points, a result or even a podium, I want to defend that win and that’s the mentality we’ll have.”

It has been an otherwise slow start to Century’s British GT campaign as its best result at Oulton Park was ninth in the first of two one-hour races that weekend.

Elsewhere, Optimum Motorsport is running a second McLaren 720S GT3 for Silverstone with Le Mans Cup duo Fran Rueda and Andrew Gilbert as its Silver-Am crew.

It is part of a 44-car grid for British GT’s second race meet of the season, which also features the series return of 2011 GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough who is sharing one of Team RJN’s McLaren 720S GT3s with Chris Buncombe.



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