IMSA | BMW bitter: “We can't afford such problems”

BMW M Motorsport licks its wounds after the 24h of Daytona, which started off on the right foot and ended in the rear.

In this first seasonal event of the IMSA SportsCar Championship the M Hybrid V8s of Team RLL set out with the intention of bringing home the podium, avoiding technical problems.

The first of the two objectives was within reach and at a certain point the German LMDhs built on Dallara chassis were proving competitive, but the reliability failed and ruined any hope of obtaining a good result.

The first to stop was the BMW #24 driven by Philipp Eng, Jesse Krohn, Augusto Farfus and Dries Vanthoor, with the latter at the wheel stopping in the central section of the track with electronic problems.

Here the marshals also started to complicate things, given that the tow cable broke, making it necessary to use the crane to put the car on the tow truck and bring it back to the pits.

Having replaced the steering wheel, the M Hybrid V8 returned to action 13 laps late, now cut off from any type of fight and hope of doing well against its GTP Class rivals.

It didn't fare any better for the #25 of Connor De Phillippi, Nick Yelloly, Maxime Martin and René Rast, also seen leading the category at one point before running into a leak in the gearbox cooling system and then having to replace the brakes back, losing 15 rounds.

In this way the two Bavarian prototypes were unable to go beyond 7th and 8th place, with many regrets and a job that will now necessarily have to be refined in view of the next outings, especially Sebring.

“I feel sorry for all the team members who worked hard for this event, we definitely deserved a better result – regrets Krohn – For me personally it was a fantastic experience”.

“I had a lot of fun in my first race with the new car and learned a lot. I am convinced that we could have achieved a great result without our problems.”

De Phillippi was also bitter: “It didn't go the way we wanted. We had had a positive week before the race, but unfortunately luck wasn't on our side.”

“We can't afford technical problems like the ones we had in a race like this. We have to learn from this in view of Sebring.”

Photo by: Bob Meyer

#25 BMW Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8: Connor De Phillippi, Nick Yelloly, Maxime Martin, Rene Rast, #24 BMW Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8: Jesse Krohn, Philipp Eng, Augusto Farfus, Dries Vanthoor

Andreas Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport, adds: “Looking at our results from this weekend is, of course, very disappointing. But we showed that our car was capable of keeping up with the competition and was even leading at times.” .

“When compared to our debut a year ago, we have made great strides in the right direction in terms of performance.”

“Unfortunately, we had technical problems with both cars overnight, which shouldn't happen in a race of this type.”

“Now we need to analyze them precisely to make sure we are better prepared for the next races.”

Franciscus Van Meel, CEO of BMW M, comments: “Luck was not on our side. We were well prepared for the race and started with a good feeling. Consequently, we are disappointed by this result, but it is the way it is and it must be accepted “.

“We have two more important races to tackle in Qatar and Sebring in the next six weeks. Now it's about putting into practice everything we couldn't do in Daytona and moving up the rankings.”