Having achieved his first podium in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Dries Vanthoor hasn’t taken a load off himself, but he is aware that it is only the first step in a long journey for his BMW.
The M Hybrid V8 made its debut this year in the HYPERCAR Class of the World Championship and, after an uphill start, the summer break brought it back to us as a car capable of competing for the positions that count.
In Austin the physical problem of his teammate Marco Wittmann denied the Belgian and Raffaele Marciello a potential podium finish, which however arrived with a convincing performance in Fuji, where the LMDh managed by Team WRT also fought at times for the head of the race.
#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor
Photo credit: JEP / Motorsport Images
“We were also very strong at COTA thanks to excellent improvements on the car, it was nice to see that the ideas we brought worked and in fact we were competitive, even after the spin, with a good strategy and pace that brought us back to the Top10, compensating for the wasted time”, explains Vanthoor speaking to Motorsport.com when we met him in Monza for the GT World Challenge Europe stage.
“After eighth place in Texas we had the question mark whether we would have been as competitive at Fuji or not, considering that the track was very different and for the first time we had managed to express ourselves well.”
“If we think about where we were when the season started, the podium was a bit of a surprise because at the beginning of the year we were 2 laps behind and after a few months we were able to get there. We didn’t expect it, to be honest, but we managed to work well right from the first tests.”
#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann, #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries
Photo by: Andreas Beil
For the moment, BMW M Motorsport have reiterated that the use of the five tokens for the evolutions, the so-called Evo Jokers, are not a priority, given that with Team WRT there is first the obligation to thoroughly understand the chassis LMDh Dallara.
One of the critical points, however, remains braking efficiency, which is making all the drivers of the German prototype suffer a bit, despite their efforts to understand how to remedy the problem affecting the car.
“There is still a lot to do, we have improved a lot in various areas and we are working hard to implement many things inside the car. There are still some problems from a braking point of view, we are still trying to understand many aspects, but it must also be said that we have made some improvements, so let’s try to continue like this.”
“In the race it is certainly a problem that has a significant impact, while in Qualifying it actually doesn’t. In the long run it always tends to damage us a lot, so I think this is the first area on which we will need to intervene”
“I think that, sooner or later, it is necessary to use the Evo Jokers, but we evaluate everything very carefully since we only have a few during the homologation period of the car. We want to use them in the best possible way and for the most important aspects so that we can get to fight stably for the top, which is not possible at the moment.”
“We need some updates to be able to do this and this is what we need to work on now, to understand which ones to introduce first. The people who work in these areas together with us pilots, with a continuous exchange of information, know quite well where we need to improve and probably”.
“In any case, until we exploit the full potential of the car, there is no need to spend wild cards and I am still convinced that there is potential in the car that we still have to bring out. As long as we manage to do this, there is no we need updates. The more we work, the more we will improve.”
#32 Team WRT, BMW M4 GT3: Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde, Charles Weerts
Photo by: Paolo Belletti
Vanthoor is splitting the WEC-GTWC dual program and this is also something that adds challenge to the challenges between the M Hybrid V8 and M4 GT3.
“The LMDh continues to be a rather complicated car to drive, but you get used to it every time you get behind the wheel. Changing cars from one weekend to the next is certainly not easy, but little by little you manage to adapt.”
“In the GTWC we are currently leading the Sprint Cup and this is very positive, unfortunately in the Endurance there were some difficulties that put us in a backward position. Today two retirements like those suffered at Paul Ricard and Nurburgring weigh heavily and it is practically impossible to recover and fight for the title, but we will try until the end.”
“It must be said that no one has ever been to Jeddah, so we are all starting on equal terms. But I am convinced that the team has everything to prepare well for the event. It is impossible to make predictions for Barcelona, historically it is not a track that is favorable to us , but we will do our best to win.”
Additional information by Rachit Thukral
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