BMW says it was satisfied of Dries Vanthoor’s potential in LMDh equipment earlier than he had even joined its Hypercar programme within the World Endurance Championship.
Vanthoor stepped as much as WEC’s high class in 2024 with BMW after a formidable stint in GT racing that noticed him rating two outright victories within the Nurburgring 24 Hours, three consecutive titles in GT World Problem Europe Dash Cup and a category win on the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The Belgian has gelled properly with the Dallara-based BMW M Hybrid V8, topping the primary qualifying at Le Mans final 12 months and propelling the automobile to podiums at Fuji in 2024 and Imola in 2025.
He additionally scored three consecutive pole positions within the IMSA SportsCar Championship this 12 months in a powerful show of his one-lap tempo.
However BMW motorsport boss Andreas Roos says he’s not stunned to see Vanthoor keep it up his GT racing kind into LMDh, having adopted his profession from its early days.
Roos cited Vanthoor’s speedy adaptation to the Oreca 07 in 2022, which included a category victory in his second WEC LMP2 look at Fuji WEC, as proof that he was all the time going to do properly in a top-of-the-line prototype.
“While you comply with a bit what Dries Vanthoor was doing previously. It was not the primary time he was sitting in a prototype with BMW,” Roos instructed Crash.web.
“He already had some expertise in LMP2 vehicles; he raced Le Mans already in an LMP2 automobile, he raced Fuji in an LMP2 automobile.
“And whenever you look already there what he was capable of do, simply leaping in for some single races, you can already see that he’s not solely fast in a GT automobile, that he may even be fast in a prototype automobile.
“In the long run, he proved to be a brilliant fast driver and we’re tremendous pleased. We will clearly say with the eight drivers which might be in our hypercar programme, they’re all tremendous fast, they get alongside very properly collectively.
“That is additionally a giant a part of being profitable – that there’s a excellent spirit and all drivers are roughly on the identical stage and I feel from BMW’s aspect we will be tremendous pleased with our very sturdy driver line-up.”
Whereas Vanthoor has performed a number one position in BMW turning into a real frontrunner in each the WEC and IMSA within the final six-eight months, the 27-year-old has additionally made his fair proportion of errors in latest races.
On the season-opening Daytona 24 Hours, Vanthoor held the lead from pole place within the early phases of the race, solely to misjudge his strategy into the pit field within the second hour.
Within the 12 Hours of Sebring, he was hit with a drive-through penalty for altering his lane earlier than the beginning/end line.
Vanthoor will be very onerous on himself for making unforced errors, just like how McLaren driver Lando Norris could be very self-critical in Method 1.
Requested what recommendation he offers to the 27-year-old in such conditions, Roos stated: “He’s for positive very onerous with himself.
“On the finish, it is racing and he’s preventing for high outcomes and he needs to win races like we need to win races.
“You’ll be able to by no means say about Dries that he did not give every thing that he might do to make this occur.
“For positive, we additionally mentioned when one thing like this occurred. You do not have to inform Dries as a result of he takes the job very very significantly.
“He is aware of himself what went unsuitable and what went good and an important factor is we be taught out of errors and make it higher subsequent time.”
Additionally learn: How BMW rotated its LMDh programme in WEC and IMSA
