Kevin Magnussen shall be a part of BMW’s World Endurance Championship driver line-up plus three endurance rounds within the IMSA Sportscar Championship because the German producer unveils its LMDh plans for subsequent yr.
The previous Formulation 1 driver will slot into the #15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 squad alongside Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor, successfully changing Marco Wittmann within the line-up who heads to BMW’s IMSA LMDh programme, whereas the sister #20 automotive has an unchanged line-up of Robin Frijns, Rene Rast and Sheldon van der Linde.
Magnussen’s earlier sportscar expertise features a season with a Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac DPi-V.R through the 2021 IMSA marketing campaign, by which he and Renger van der Zande received in Detroit.
He additionally made a single Le Mans 24 Hours begin within the LMP2 class in 2021 and made a Gulf 12 Hours cameo aboard a Ferrari 488 GT3 in 2022.
BMW additionally enters its third season within the IMSA Sportscar Championship in 2025 with RLL, with van der Linde and Vanthoor taking up a twin position, competing as common drivers in each the WEC and the IMSA. Vanthoor will share the #24 BMW with Philipp Eng, whereas van der Linde and Wittmann will drive the #25 sister automotive.
As a result of schedule conflicts between the WEC and IMSA, BMW will solely run two drivers per automotive on the WEC Spa-Francorchamps spherical in Could, with Vanthoor and van der Linde competing in IMSA’s Laguna Seca spherical on the identical weekend.
In the meantime, for the endurance IMSA races, BMW will name on its full roster in 2025. Magnussen will be a part of the #24 automotive for the Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring 12 Hours and Petit Le Mans, with Marciello becoming a member of that entry because the fourth driver for the Daytona 24 Hours in January.
#15 BMW M Crew WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dan Harper, Max Hesse
Picture by: Shameem Fahath
Within the #25 automotive, Frijns will dovetail Magnussen’s programme, with Rene Rast named because the fourth driver for that automotive at Daytona.
“For our driver line-up, this implies focusing and specialising,” Andreas Roos, head of BMW M Motorsport, stated. “The extra time our drivers spend behind the wheel of the BMW M Hybrid V8, the higher they may get to know its dealing with and the extra suggestions they’ll present to our engineers.
“The purpose is to accentuate the event of the BMW M Hybrid V8 in collaboration with the specialists on the groups and at BMW M Motorsport.
“It additionally helps us on this regard, that some drivers compete in each championships, thereby additional bettering the trade of knowledge. We’re satisfied that this manner becoming a member of our forces will deliver us benefits.”
Earlier this yr, the WEC thought of banning two-driver line-ups within the Hypercar class – a proposal put ahead by the WRT BMW squad – however as soon as it was deserted BMW noticed the chance to make use of the choice.
“In fact, the schedule overlap in Could is just not excellent, however now we have the regulatory choice to compete in a 6-hour FIA WEC race with two drivers per automotive, which we are going to utilise,” Roos added.
“The truth that the season begins in January with the 24-hour race at Daytona could be very helpful for us. This enables us to have all eight drivers collectively for an prolonged interval early within the season, serving to us to optimally synchronise with one another.”
Briton Nick Yelloly, who raced an RLL BMW in IMSA for the previous two seasons, has departed its roster to hitch the Meyer Shank Racing Acura crew with van der Zande.
The announcement made no point out of both Jesse Krohn, who partnered Eng to BMW’s solely win of the 2024 IMSA season at Indianapolis, or Connor De Phillippi, who shared with Yelloly for the previous two seasons.
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