BMW M Team WRT #20 is coming to the 2026 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a recent win in the bag.
The German-Belgium outfit with Rene Rast, Sheldon van der Linde, and Robin Frijns won the lastest round of the FIA World Endurance Championship afdeling at Spa Francorchamps, on their home circuit in Belgium, which was the first win for BMW in FIA WEC. The BMW M Hybrid V8 modellen had previously on won in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, so the first question from Racing24-7.net to Rene Rast, was ofcourse related to that.
Congrats on the Spa win. It must have been a big relief for the whole team, to finally get a win in WEC?
“Yeah, definitely. It was a big relief. We were waiting for that for the last three years, let’s say.”
There has been a bit of success in IMSA with the other part of the team, so it’s good that the WEC part is also catching up?
“Yeah, exactly.”
Do you feel it’s been an advantage that WRT are on both sides of the Atlantic now running the cars?
“For sure. It’s not a disadvantage. Obviously, at the beginning of the season it was a struggle to put a new team in America because it also costs a lot of resources in WEC, so you can’t completely separate the two programmes. But in the end, I think now, once both championships are running, it’s an advantage because we learn from each other. We see where the issues are on the cars, and we can learn from them.”
Photo: JJ Media
You’re hoping to do the double next weekend — two in a row?
“It would be nice, but everybody wants to win Le Mans. So let’s see. It’s a long race, lots of things will happen. We try to stay calm and hope for the best.”
And the margins are so narrow. Half a chance here and there…
“Exactly. I think qualifying is one part, but then there’s also the race itself, with strategy and everything. It’ll be a nice race.”
BMW M Team WRT #20 with Rast, Frijns, and van der Linde were 9th and 7th fastest respectively, in the two Sunday practice sessions.
