BMW is set to line up alongside Toyota, Peugeot, Porsche, Ferrari, Glickenhaus, Cadillac, Lamborghini and Alpine in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans! The Hypercar entry will follow a debut season in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2023. 

“The decision to run the BMW M Hybrid V8 in the IMSA series from 2023, and the WEC from 2024, is a milestone for the project,” said Franciscus van Meel, CEO of BMW M GmbH. “I sampled and marvelled at the extraordinary flair of the 24 Hours of Le Mans during my first term as CEO of BMW M so I am very excited to be challenging for overall victory as BMW M Motorsport again at this classic and in the whole World Endurance Championship for the first time for decades. The BMW M Hybrid V8 represents a turning point towards electrification for BMW M. The IMSA series in North America and the WEC, which takes place all over the world, are the perfect platforms on which to use our prototype to show how exciting electrified BMW M cars will be in the future.”

Andreas Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport, said: “Due to the very tight schedule for the LMDh project, the plan has always been to focus on one field of application in the first season in 2023. The IMSA series is perfectly suited for this. However, our mid-term goal was obviously to race on two fronts with the BMW M Hybrid V8, and also to use the major platform provided by the WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We are now working determinedly towards this, at the same time as our programme in North America. We took the next important step on Monday. The car successfully completed its roll-out at Dallara in Varano de’ Melegari. We now start the intensive test work before the race debut in January 2023 at Daytona.”

The BMW M Hybrid V8 spent several days at the Dallara test track in Varano de’ Melegari after performing its shakedown there. BMW factory drivers Connor De Phillippi and Sheldon van der Linde took turns at the wheel. Further European tests are scheduled for August before BMW M Team RLL and a team of BMW Motorsport experts embark on specific preparations for the 2023 season in September.
Lots of BMW M factory drivers will get to test the car before the 2023 driver line-ups are firmed up at a later date. It will be the same for the FIA WEC operating team and drivers for 2024.

BMW won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999, when Joachim Winkelhock, Pierluigi Martini and Yannick Dalmas drove to victory in the V12 LMR. The same year, the car also won the 12 Hours of Sebring, where its successor, the BMW M Hybrid V8, will compete in 2023.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on these images from the shakedown at the Varano circuit in the photo gallery below.