BMW has presented their new LMDh car, which they will use during the 2023 season in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The name will be BMW M Hybrid V8, which refers to the engine type, but also a hybrid system, which will be new to BMW in motorsport.
The hybrid part, however, is common with all the other LMDh teams, since that is part of LMDh concept – hybrid, but in a cheap way, where individual development cost is not allowed to explode. So everybody will run a standard system, that they have to align with their internal combustion engine.
There are no further details about the car itself, other than it’s Dallara who is the chassis manufacturer.
Graphics: BMW Motorsport
The car is only confirmed to participate in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for now, but it is possible for it to participate in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. ACO has opened up for the LMDh cars to compete on equal terms with LMH cars, in what the French call Hypercar. On the other hand, IMSA has opened up for “the French cars” in their category called GTP.
The Rahal Letterman Lanigan team has the task of testing and developing the car in 2022, and two enter two cars in the IMSA series in 2023. RLL has run the BMW programme in the USA since 2009, and has been two Le Mans with the M3 version in GT2 and GTE Pro in 2010 and 2021 respectively. BMW Team MTEK ran the two BMW M8 GTE cars in the FIA World Endurance Championship in the 2018-19 season, before BMW chose to only focus on IMSA with the RLL team. The car is still competing in the endurance rounds, while the team is preparing for 2023, with the new BMW M Hybrid V8.
The 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season starts at Daytona International Speedway in January 2023.
