WEC | Marciello: “BMW is here to do better, we don't give up”

It was not an easy debut for Raffaele Marciello and BMW M Motorsport in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship at the 1812 Km of Qatar.

Clearly the Lusail weekend was intended for the Bavarian manufacturer and Team WRT to begin to get to know the Hypercar Class, after having raced for an entire year with the M Hybrid V8 in IMSA in the hands of Team RLL.

The tests carried out during the past months and the sharing of data with the American team were very useful for the Belgian team in understanding how the hybrid prototype with Dallara chassis works and how it works.

Marciello, at the wheel of the BMW #15 shared with Dries Vanthoor and Marco Wittmann began the hard and long learning work in the Prologue tests and in Qualifying he achieved a 15th position ahead of the twin #20 of Sheldon Van Der Linde/René Rast/ Robin Frijns.

At the start some positions were recovered, then the race developed as if it were a laboratory for both German LMDhs, trying to understand more about strategies and tire wear, until the accelerator pedal sensor started acting the tantrums on the #15 forcing her to return to the pits a couple of hours from the end.

Thanks to a couple of KOs from others, the #20 thus climbed back to 12th place, 3 laps behind the winning Porsche, while the #15 had to settle for 16th, 8 laps behind. A result that is certainly not satisfactory in terms of placing, but from which we will have to start again to try to improve, as Marciello himself underlines at the end of the race.

“It was certainly a very tough race and we certainly didn't achieve the result we wanted to achieve”, admits 'Lello'.

“We learned a lot this weekend and we still have more, so we will analyze everything carefully and try to do better in Imola.”

“I truly believe there is potential for it to be better and that's why we're here, we're not giving up.”

His teammate Vanthoor echoes him: “It's definitely not the result we were hoping for, but in the end it was our first race and we know we still have work to do.”

“I had fun in the car and I think it was quite pleasant to drive, which is a plus. Now we know where to improve, so we need to concentrate and make sure we recover properly.”

#20 BMW M Team Wrt BMW M Hybrid V8: Sheldon Van Der Linde, Robin Frijns, Rene Rast

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

On the other side of the garage, here's what Van Der Linde thought: “It was very disappointing for the entire team to miss the points with a completely clean race from the outside and without any real execution errors. On the other hand, we have more races to improve this year, with 7 more events, so hopefully we can make some giant strides on the car.”

“We are learning a lot with Team WRT by our side, so I think we have one of the best in the business to grow a lot. A big thank you to the team for the hard work done in the last few weeks for this first race in the FIA ​​WEC, without these guys we cannot we would be here.”

WRT Team Principal Vincent Vosse adds: “Qatar was a difficult weekend. Finishing in 12th and 16th place is not the result we were looking for, but we have collected a lot of data and have a lot of work to do.”

“In the end, we lacked some tools to fight for a better placing, so now we will get to work to present ourselves stronger at the next race!”

#15 BMW M Team Wrt BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Andreas Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport, comments: “We returned to the FIA ​​WEC and it was our first race together with Team WRT in the World Championship. It certainly wasn't the seasonal debut that we all had wanted, but I believe that in Hypercar class it immediately became clear that we couldn't show the right pace in the race.”

“Now we have to carefully analyze the situation and take the necessary measures to get the most out of it. The positive aspect is that, at the debut, all the procedures worked very well. Now we have to leverage this because we aim to win races and championships.”