BMW now has the “tempo to battle for wins” within the World Endurance Championship with its M Hybrid V8 LMDh, WRT group boss Vincent Vosse believes.
Vosse made the assertion after the #15 WRT BMW shared by Marco Wittmann, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor took M Hybrid’s first WEC Hypercar class podium with second place behind Porsche in final Sunday’s Fuji 6 Hours.
“We had the tempo to battle the Porsche and battle for the win however P2 remains to be good, we’ll take that,” Vosse informed Motorsport.com.
“We proved that we are actually within the combine, that we are able to compete.”
BMW’s Fuji efficiency, which additionally encompassed the M Hybrid’s finest WEC qualifying efficiency with third place for Vanthoor, got here after a step ahead was made final outing at Austin earlier this month.
The most effective of the BMWs on the Circuit of The Americas, the #20 automobile shared by Rene Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde, was on target for fifth earlier than a penultimate-hour drive-through penalty after which sixth earlier than the automobile stopped a lap too late at its last pit name and was penalised once more for going over its vitality allocation for the stint.
Vosse revealed that WRT and BMW have been not sure whether or not they might comply with up on that at Fuji, a observe on which the M Hybrid had by no means beforehand raced or examined.
#15 BMW M Crew WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann
Photograph by: Andreas Beil
“There was clearly a change of observe attribute, however we confirmed right here with our greatest ends in qualifying and the race that we’re persevering with to make progress.
“We’re enhancing each little factor, the group, the automobile and the drivers’ understanding of the automobile, and the Stability of Efficiency has additionally helped us,” defined Vosse. “We weren’t the quickest at present, however we have been up there and we did our job.”
Vosse advised that BMW might have gained the race at Fuji however for a damaged left rear rim when Marciello was concerned in an incident with Cadillac driver Earl Bamber in hour three.
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As a result of Marciello needed to pit early handy over to Vanthoor it eliminated the strategic benefit the automobile had gained by stopping below the primary Digital Security Automotive that led right into a full security automobile.
Requested if BMW goes to the 2024 WEC finale in Bahrain to win the race, Vosse was non-committal.
“Not less than we’re going to Bahrain with confidence that we’re going to be someplace up there,” he stated.
“To say we’re going to win can be tough as a result of Hypercar is so aggressive now. Step after step we’re getting there, however to win all the pieces must be excellent and at present for us it wasn’t as a result of we had the damaged rim.”
