Why BMW shouldn't be discounted on its Le Mans return

Starting one year later than its LMDh rivals means that BMW’s World Endurance Championship Hypercar programme has been mixed so far. But there are reasons to anticipate that its Le Mans return with WRT can be memorable

It has taken outright victories at the Spa and Nurburgring 24 Hours, the Bathurst 12 Hour and Macau’s GT World Cup. There have been countless titles in GT racing, and the honours have kept on coming since its move into prototypes in 2021. Now comes WRT’s long-awaited chance to tackle the Le Mans 24 Hours in sportscar racing’s top category. And it will do so with an illustrious partner in BMW.

The 2024 race is a significant anniversary for the Bavarian marque: it’s 25 years since its famous victory in 1999, when the Schnitzer-run V12 LMR of Yannick Dalmas, Jo Winkelhock and Pierluigi Martini prevailed over Toyota after several fancied manufacturer efforts fell by the wayside. That’s a scenario that BMW motorsport boss Andreas Roos would be only too happy to see repeated with the M Hybrid V8 LMDh as the marque embarks on its first attempt at Le Mans since 2019, when its MTEK-run M8s ran in GTE Pro.

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Author James Newbold

James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.