BMW secured its first overall FIA World Endurance Championship victory in Hypercar with a 1-2 finish in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Team WRT’s #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 of René Rast, Sheldon van der Linde and Robin Frijns converted an alternative strategy into a breakthrough result for the German manufacturer.
The victory came after a difficult qualifying session that left the #20 crew starting outside the leading positions, with Rast admitting the team had not expected to challenge for victory at the start of the day: “If somebody had told me this morning that we were fighting for a BMW 1-2, I wouldn’t have believed it,” he said. “Yesterday in qualifying we were lacking a little bit of pace and after the start I was on P11 and really struggling in the traffic.”
BMW’s race changed through strategy, with the team committing to an offset approach before the start. Rast explained that the plan had already been discussed internally before the race and that the #20 car was ultimately chosen to take the gamble.
“We knew beforehand this strategy, if everything worked in our favour, could actually pay off,” he said. “In the end it was a gamble and I was the lucky one to get that strategy.” Once the BMW was in clean air, the pace of the M Hybrid V8 became clear: “Whenever we were in clean air the car was flying,” Rast said. “We had great pit stops, no mistakes, no contact.”
The German also underlined the significance of the result for both BMW and Belgian squad Team WRT, adding that it was “nice to celebrate that win in Belgium where WRT is basically at home.”
For Sheldon van der Linde, the result represented a reward for the work BMW and WRT have put into the Hypercar project over the last three seasons: “We’ve been in this program now for three years in the WEC and we’ve come so close a few times,” he said. The South African compared the winning strategy to the approach that helped BMW score its first Hypercar podium at Imola last year, where track position in clean air also proved decisive.
“We knew it was a risky strategy,” van der Linde explained. “If the virtual safety car came out in my stint at the beginning we knew we would probably be at the back, but it was the risk we were going to take from the back of the field.”
This time, the race developed in BMW’s favour and the strategy delivered the manufacturer’s first WEC Hypercar victory. The result also marked van der Linde’s first podium in the championship. “I’m really proud of the team and the way they kept calm,” he said.
Frijns Details Closing Stages
Frijns completed the final stint under pressure after inheriting the lead during a race that featured multiple interruptions and late safety cars. “You receive the car in P1 and you only can go backwards, so the pressure is on your shoulders,” he said.
The Dutchman focused on managing the gap while avoiding unnecessary risks in traffic during the closing laps. “The last thing you want with three or four laps to go is have damage and not finish the race,” he explained. “I just took it quite gentle.”
The victory was also a major milestone for BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos, who described the win as the culmination of a long-term effort since the company committed to the Hypercar category: “It was a big effort from the beginning when we decided to enter the Hypercar category and the WEC championship,” he said. “It was hard work, but at the end seeing two cars on the podium, it couldn’t be better.”
Roos also connected the result to BMW’s endurance racing history, noting that the manufacturer’s last major overall endurance victory came at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans. “Now, 26 years later, we managed to have another big victory,” he said.
BMW’s revised EVO-spec M Hybrid V8 also appeared to show clear progress at Spa, particularly over long runs. Frijns explained that much of the recent development work had focused on making the car more predictable and consistent in race conditions. “The key this race was to bring the cars into clean air and the guys were able to do quick lap times one after the other,” he said. “At the end that made the gap to put the car into the front.”
Frijns also praised the sister #15 BMW crew for securing second place and completing the manufacturer’s first 1-2 finish in the Hypercar era, highlighting Kevin Magnussen’s closing stint as “an amazing job” in keeping the car in position behind the winning #20 entry.
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