BMW has acknowledged there’s a chance its forthcoming LMDh prototype could compete at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The race car is being developed for the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and hasn’t been designed with the World Endurance Championship in mind, unlike new prototypes from the likes of Toyota, Glickenhaus, Peugeot, Porsche and Ferrari. However, this may change.
Speaking with Motorsport.com, BMW Motorsport boss Mike Krack acknowledged there’s a possibility the new prototype could join the World Endurance Championship in 2024 and race at Le Mans.
Read Also: BMW Offers Us A Glimpse Of Its 2023 LMDh Prototype
“In the coming months we are going through the strategy: what is the next step and what happens after ’23?” he said. “If you are looking at a Le Mans programme, you need to discuss it with the ACO [Le Mans organizer Automobile Club de l’Ouest] and commit to a certain duration. We need to get all the elements together: what does it mean to target a Le Mans win? There is no final decision, but time is running.”
Krack added that BMW Motorsport is particularly intrigued by the idea of running both factory and customer cars in IMSA and WEC.
“Ideally we would have a customer in IMSA and a customer in the WEC,” he said. “With the thinking behind the LMDh model, it is really not right if you only go as a factory. Obviously you need interested parties and you need to find agreements, but we would be really happy if we could do that.”
While some manufacturers have started to show off prototypes of their new LMH and LMDh prototypes, BMW has yet to do so. Cars racing in the Le Mans Hypercar class of the WEC are capped at 670 hp and Porsche recently confirmed its car would hit that figure with a twin-turbocharged V8, while Peugeot’s upcoming race car will sport a twin-turbocharged V6.
