The entry of BMW Motorsport in the World Endurance
(WEC) and the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 2018 will be a revolution in the
sports programs of the brand. However, the signature of Munich will return to The
Sarthe-seven years after of their last involvement and he will do so with a model
still that is still to be determined, but which will serve as a platform for the rest
of projects in other categories. In other words, the vehicle
GTE to develop BMW Motorsport will serve as a basis for the future
GTLM for US and GT3 for programs racing-customer in Europe, Asia and Australia.
Jens Marquardt, in his role as Director of BMW Motorsport
explained in ‘Sportscar365’ all the implications of this new program for
the bavarian manufacturer: “Obviously is a very important project for us.
We saw that the BMW Z4 would not be very competitive at Le Mans, albeit with a
approval GTE. Neither could we use our model GTLM due to the
convergence between the GT not occurred and the way was clear and precise.
Now we have to look at the period of type approval of our vehicles because
we have our BMW M6 GTLM in the first year of life of its period of approval
three años”.
In this aspect, Marquardt explains that BMW Motorsport
has decided to continue with the variant of the BMW M6 GTLM in the IMSA through the
planned programme of three years was fixed when the brand developed the
model, which in turn allows for an update of this car. However,
the plan more logical in the long term is to invest in a new car: “We have
spoken with our board and we are in agreement that the best step is to go to the full
the approval and GTE, to open other opportunities instead of continuing with
something that is not really our intention”.
In the absence of defining the model that will support this version of GTE -and that could even be a hybrid – it appears that BMW Motorsport takes
the decision to develop a car to GTE and from the same to create a version
GTLM -to 2019- and GT3. Marquardt believes that this is the step
logical, and moreover, the arrival of BMW to the WEC is at the perfect time:
“The WEC is a series of young, but it has become a championship is good and
stable. Our program in the IMSA in the united States and to the programs in
Europe, Asia, and Australia is now added a program in the WEC, that encompasses everything“.
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