BMW Confirms Vanthoor, Weerts, Herta in 20-Driver Factory Roster

Dries Vanthoor, Charles Weerts and Colton Herta have been added to BMW’s roster of factory drivers for the 2023 season.

The trio form part of a 20-driver lineup. Maxime Martin and Rene Rast, both previously announced to be joining the Munich-based manufacturer, have also joined.

Vanthoor and Weerts arrive at BMW after leaving Audi in October, when they were rumored to be changing manufacturers in the same direction as Team WRT, which guided the Belgian pair to three consecutive Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup titles.

Herta, meanwhile, is named to the factory driver roster ahead of joining BMW M Team RLL’s GTP lineup for next month’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The 22-year-old made three previous starts in BMW machinery in the Florida endurance classic. He won the GTLM class on his debut in an RLL-run BMW M8 GTE in 2019 and finished fifth in class a year later.

In 2021, he teamed up with Bill Auberlen, Robby Foley and Aidan Read aboard Turner Motorsport’s BMW M6 GT3.

BMW Junior Team members Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Neil Verhagen also receive promotions to official factory status.

The new drivers join the list of existing works drivers consisting of Jake Dennis, Connor De Phillippi, John Edwards, Philipp Eng, Augusto Farfus, Erik Johansson, Jens Klingmann, Jesse Krohn, Bruno Spengler, Sheldon van der Linde, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly.

Of note, three drivers are no longer part of BMW’s squad of factory talent, with Nicky Catsburg, Stef Dusseldorp and Alexander Sims all leaving.

The latter has signed on to be part of Action Express Racing’s factory Cadillac GTP effort in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next year, while Catsburg will drive for Corvette Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship GTE-Am class.