BMW has revealed that the official safety car for the 2024 MotoGP championship will be the new XM Label Red, its most powerful vehicle but also one of its least track-focused models. Plus, they’ve handed over the keys to another XM Label Red to Francesco Bagnaia, the reigning MotoGP World Champion. With seven pole positions and eight front-row starts in the 2023 season, he’s basically the “Pole King” of MotoGP.
For a quarter of a century, BMW has been the “Official Car of the MotoGP,” and for 21 consecutive years, they’ve been handing out shiny new cars to the fastest qualifier in the championship. Bagnaia also won the award last year and joins the likes of Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, and Marc Marquez as a multiple-time BMW M Award winner.
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“Winning the BMW M Award for the first time last year was fantastic,” Bagnaia said over the weekend. “Back then, I immediately set myself the goal of repeating the feat this season. As such, I am thrilled to have actually done it. Although it may look as though it was a stroll in the park this year, it was not. Every qualifying was extremely hard-fought.”
Soon after presenting the two-time MotoGP World Champion with his new whip, BMW introduced the special XM Label Red to be used as next year’s official safety car. Whereas Bagnaia’s car is painted matte black with red accents, the safety car has been given a matte grey finish with red highlights.
Additionally, the M division has fitted it with the obligatory flashing front lights, a roof bar, a new front splitter, a fire extinguisher, Recaro seats, and six-point racing harnesses. No modifications have been made to its powertrain, meaning the 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 continues to work alongside an electric motor to produce a combined 748 hp and 737 lb-ft (1,000 Nm) of torque. It replaces the BMW M2 safety car that was used throughout the 2023 season.
“It is a logical step for the most powerful BMW M automobile we have ever rolled out to be the new figurehead of our safety car fleet in MotoGP,” BMW M boss Franciscus van Meel said at the launch. “The first MotoGP Safety Car with an electric drive system is clear evidence of our striving for new, future-oriented technologies. In the BMW XM Label Red, a V8 engine and an e-motor integrated in the 8-speed M Steptronic gearbox generate a total output of 550 kW or 748 hp. This hugely powerful drive system, and outstanding driving dynamics in all situations, make the BMW XM Label Red the perfect basis for a MotoGP Safety Car.”
