IMSA 2023: ROLEX 24 a difficult baptism for BMW and Porsche

IMSA

Feb 1

With the complexity of the new GTP class prototypes, most drivers and team members seemed to think that reliability was going to be an issue for some components. It was nothing for both American manufacturers Acura and Cadillac despite worries about the gearbox of the winning #60 Acura well managed by the Meyer Shank Racing Acura team who kept maintaining the gearbox and fluid levels and trying to fix it literally the whole race. The 61st Rolex 24 At Daytona was headed by the two Acura ARX-06s and two Cadillac V-LMDhs in P3 and P4, all on the lead lap.

For the German manufacturers, the success was not the same with the #25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 finishing 131 laps down after issues with the spec hybrid powertrain and the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 not finishing after suffering a broken gearbox.

Philipp Eng, Augusto Farfus, Marco Wittmann and Colton Herta with the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 crossed the finish line in sixth place, 15 laps behind the winners.

The debut of Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 in the 61st running of the 24 Hours of Daytona ended with a P14 overall result for the #7 race car of Felipe Nasr, Matt Campbell and Michael Christensen (34 laps behind the winners).

BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8

The season-opener in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the Daytona International Speedway marked the start of a new era for prototype motor racing. It was the first time that hybrid-driven LMDh cars competed in the GTP class, meaning that the BMW M Hybrid V8 completed its baptism of fire under race conditions. Philipp Eng, Augusto Farfus, Marco Wittmann and Colton Herta gave a consistent performance in the #24 car. The quartet was within striking distance of a podium finish for some time before issues with the hybrid system resulted in a brake problem in the final quarter of the race that cost a substantial amount of time. Final driver Philipp Eng crossed the finish line in sixth place.

📷 © Luc Warnotte. #25 **BMW M Team RLL** **BMW M Hybrid V8** at ROLEX 24 2023.

The #25 car had to be pushed to the pits to make an extended repair stop in the BMW M Team RLL garage after about an hour. A number of components had to be replaced after failure of the hybrid powertrain – a common component used by all manufacturers. That took around two and a half hours and meant that Connor De Phillippi, Nick Yelloly, Sheldon van der Linde and Colton Herta, who was racing in both cars, were forced to drive right at the back of the field. They still managed to finish the race, chalking up kilometres of testing that will prove valuable when considering the short preparation period and the remainder of the season ahead.

Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963

After a promising start with Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr in the cockpits of the two Porsche 963, the works team suffered the first setback at 7:00 pm on Saturday: the replacement of the high-voltage battery threw the #7 down the field. As the race progressed, damage to the cooling system forced the vehicle back into the Porsche Penske Motorsport garage for repairs.

📷 © Luc Warnotte. #6 **Porsche Penske Motorsport** **Porsche 963** at ROLEX 24 2023.

The #6 car, which in the early stages Tandy had catapulted from P9 on the grid to the leading pack, put in a strong performance. During the night, the Porsche returnee and his teammates Mathieu Jaminet and Dane Cameron even led the field at times. A spin by Tandy – the 2015 outright Le Mans winner in the Porsche 919 Hybrid – cost him three laps. On Sunday morning, the crew again launched an attack. Posting top lap times, the Porsche 963 ploughed its way back to within striking distance of the frontrunners, only to be robbed of all hopes for a top result by a gearbox problem. While the car shared by Tandy/Jaminet/Cameron had to retire early, the sister car driven by Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr and Michael Christensen went on to take the GTP-class flag in seventh place after 24 hours (14th overall, 20 laps behind the leaders).

“We’re disappointed, no question about it,” concludes Thomas Laudenbach. The Vice President of Porsche Motorsport adds: “After just over five hours, the #7 car was thrown out of contention for victory due to an issue with the high-voltage system. Later, our #6 suffered damage to the powertrain. We experienced several problems but at the same time, we were able to learn a great deal. The good thing is, we know where we now stand and what we need to work on. We’ll now prepare systematically for the next race at Sebring in March.”

“Firstly, congratulations to Acura on winning the maiden race in the new GTP era,” declares Urs Kuratle, Director Factory Motorsport LMDh. “We were hoping for more, mostly because we managed to set a fantastic pace at times. I’d like to thank Multimatic and all other partners. It’s been a long road for us all and we’ve finally arrived at the start of the GTP class. This is tremendous for the entire racing scene. Of all weekends, we had to deal with a lot of damage this weekend. Thank you to my colleagues in Weissach and at the team bases in Mooresville and Mannheim for their tireless work. We deserved a better result however we’ve learned a lot, which we will now consistently implement.”