BMW to bid farewell to WEC motorsport collection
BMW’s run in endurance racing lasted only a single season. BMW mentioned Wednesday it should exit the World Endurance Championship collection because it makes adjustments to its motorsports program. That can make the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans this June BMW’s farewell to WEC.
“We is not going to compete in WEC going ahead,” BMW Group Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt, mentioned. “Subsequently, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June will likely be one other spotlight for us in drawing to a detailed—identical to in 2018, after we celebrated the profitable world premiere of the BMW eight Sequence Coupe there.”
2018 BMW M8 GTE racecar
“In gentle of us sharpening our focus as a part of our technique for the longer term, persevering with our WEC involvement within the coming years doesn’t match with our route,” Marquardt added.
That additionally leaves the BMW M8 GTE useless within the water for world championship racing, although the M8 race automobile will proceed to race in DTM and throughout Europe and Asia. In North America, the M8 will even deal with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship within the GTD class. Ford, Porsche, Aston Martin, Toyota, and Ferrari will stay in WEC.
DTM will function Europe’s connection to racing and growth, whereas Marquardt mentioned the IMSA SportsCar Championship has developed nicely. He mentioned the U.S. stays an important marketplace for BMW M and participation within the IMSA collection made logical sense to proceed.
BMW M8 GTE on the 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona
Extra sources will likely be spent in System E, nonetheless. The electrical racing collection has emerged as a future-forward favourite league amongst producers. Quite a few manufacturers have ditched established racing collection for System E, together with Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. Notably, Porsche additionally ended its WEC LMP1 program to affix System E. Mercedes-Benz mentioned it might depart DTM for System E as nicely.
Different areas BMW Motorsports will deal with embrace the budding simulation racing section, which the model mentioned usually attracts youthful followers, and its buyer racing program. A brand new GT3 race automobile is already in growth, the corporate mentioned.