Fry: “Breakthrough Day” for BMW M Hybrid V8 in GTP Testing

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

BMW M Team RLL had a “breakthrough day” with its LMDh car according to technical and race operations director Brandon Fry, with the German manufacturer not encountering any major reliability issues in the first of a three-day IMSA-sanctioned GTP test at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Connor De Phillippi and Marco Wittmann handled driving duties of the BMW M Hybrid V8 on Monday, logging considerable mileage in what both Fry and De Phillippi considered to have been its most productive test so far.

“We ran a lot of laps. Really, this was one of the smoothest tests we’ve had so far,” said Fry. “Everything just worked all day.

“We got through a lot of our development plans in running. It was a good day all around. We had both Connor and Marco in the car and everything went really smooth for them.

“There’s a lot that we’ve learned about and to digest tonight and go from there.”

While laying down fast lap times wasn’t the goal, Fry said he was pleasantly surprised by the pace of the Dallara-chasssied LMDh car while up against the Cadillac V-LMDh and Acura ARX-06, both of which had previously tested at the 2.54-mile circuit.

Official lap times are not being published during this week’s test.

“It was all about getting mileage but certainly as the drivers got more time in the car, the pace came down and I think all of the cars looked like they were pretty close together,” said Fry.

“It’s nice to see right out of the box that everybody’s pretty close.

“It’s certainly a new car [with] a lot of development and a lot of stuff going on. We needed a strong day like we had today where we put in a lot of laps.

“In some ways this was a little bit of a breakthrough day for us.”

The productive day for BMW came after the car sustained an accident in testing at Watkins Glen International last week, which put the group in a race against time to rebuild and be ready for this week’s test.

“By far this was our first proper test day, I would say,” said De Phillippi. “We’ve had others in Europe but we always had issues holding us back.

“I’m super happy for the guys because they’ve been working hard for the last month, month-and-a-half to get all those things dialed out.

“Now the car is more dialed in and a lot more reliable. We had a really, really smooth day. I think we probably logged the most laps out of anybody.

“Hats off to them for working that out and. Our work is going to be cut out for us between now and Daytona but I think it’s the same for everybody. I’m just happy the day went smoothly.

“I think everyone has a big weight lifted off their shoulders because they’ve been under a microscope with every little thing going wrong here and there.

“Not that it was any fault of their own it’s just working with new suppliers and trying to get everything dialed in… even just communicating across different continents and different companies, different languages… It’s easy for one little thing to go wrong.

“Those things are going to happen and unfortunately those take time to solve and time’s not on our side. Today was a huge, huge day for us.

“The goal is to keep it on track these next two days, keep logging the miles.

“We have two more drivers that just landed tonight. We’re ready for the action.”

De Phillippi and Wittmann will be joined by Augusto Farfus and Nick Yelloly for tomorrow’s on-track action that begins at 8 a.m. ET.

“Short Day” for CGR Cadillac Due to Parts Delays

While the Action Express Racing-run Cadillac V-LMDh was the first car on track Monday morning, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Cadillac only made it out in late afternoon following delays in receiving parts for its car.

“It was a short day for us,” said Sebastien Bourdais. “It kind of started at 4:30 [p.m.] or something.

“We had a lot of stuff to put on the car that just showed up really late, in terms of sensors and systems and hardware.

“Unfortunately we didn’t get through quite a whole lot of things we wanted to get through. At least we got the car through a few systems checks and a couple of sweeps and stuff.

“That was quite useful, and getting the basic setups right like ride height so you can start working tomorrow once it gets going.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John