BMW M Motorsport has outlined their IMSA SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship LMDh driver lineups for the 2025 season.
The Bavarian manufacturer has specified their 2025 lineups for their second WEC season and third in the IMSA SportsCar Championship using LMDh machinery.
In the WEC, Team WRT co-runs the BMW Hypercar entries as Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing does so in IMSA and their GTP class.
Newcomer Kevin Magnussen will replace Marco Wittmann – who switches from WEC to IMSA – and co-drives the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 Hypercar with Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor.
The #20 WEC Hypercar entrant will retain their outgoing co-drivers Robin Frijns, Rene Rast, and Sheldon van der Linde.
Van der Linde and Vanthoor will take on both the WEC and IMSA as #24 BMW (IMSA) full-season drivers, taking on a mixture of sprint and endurance events. Magnussen will assist them in three Endurance Cup races – Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans – and Marciello as their fourth ‘Daytona’ driver.
Meanwhile in the #25 BMW IMSA entry, Frijns will be the Endurance Cup driver, and Wittmann and Philipp Eng will drive for the full-season.
A scheduling clash between IMSA and the WEC will mean that only two drivers per car will race at the WEC’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps (10 May) as Vanthoor and van der Linde will compete in IMSA’s 160-minute Laguna Seca sprint event (11 May).
Head of BMW M Motorsport aims high for 2025
Andreas Roos said: “We have high goals for the upcoming season with our BMW M Hybrid V8 prototypes.
“To achieve these, we are striving for optimisations in all areas.
“For our driver lineup, this means focusing and specialising.
“The more time our drivers spend behind the wheel of the BMW M Hybrid V8, the better they will get to know its handling and the more feedback they can provide to our engineers.
“The goal is to intensify the development of the BMW M Hybrid V8 in collaboration with the specialists at the teams and at BMW M Motorsport.
“It also helps us in this regard, that some drivers compete in both championships, thereby further improving the exchange of information.
“We are convinced that this way joining our forces will bring us advantages.
“Of course, the schedule overlap in May is not ideal, but we have the regulatory option to compete in a 6-hour FIA WEC race with two drivers per car, which we will utilise.
“The fact that the season starts in January with the 24-hour race at Daytona is very beneficial for us.
“This allows us to have all eight drivers together for an extended period early in the season, helping us to optimally synchronise with each other.”
After winning the Battle on the Bricks, and finishing runner-up at the 6 Hours of Fuji, BMW are looking for more appearances on the podium next year.
BMW’s 2025 season will commence with the 24 Hours of Daytona on 25-26 January and the WEC Qatar 1812 km season-opener on 28 February.
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