Roos: No Current Plans for M Hybrid V8 Evo Jokers

BMW has no current plans to introduce Evo jokers on its BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh car, although motorsport boss Andreas Roos indicated that data gathered from the car’s maiden 24 Hours of Le Mans could play a role in future decision-making.

The German manufacturer is currently in the midst of the second season of competition for its Dallara-chassised LMDh car, which debuted in last year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.

This year, BMW has expanded its efforts to compete on two fronts, adding an FIA World Endurance Championship program with Team WRT.

Thus far, three manufacturers in the WEC Hypercar field (Toyota, Peugeot and Porsche) are understood to have used Evo jokers on their cars, while Ferrari has stated that it is likely to introduce its first one in 2025.

Speaking to selected media gathered in the Le Mans paddock on Wednesday, Roos outlined that there is “nothing planned at the moment” with regards to significant modifications to the car.

By regulation, each manufacturer is allowed to use five jokers to roll out significant updates to a car, which would require varying degrees of the re-homologations of components.

“For sure we investigate and check maybe which areas we could look into to improve, but there is nothing happening at the moment yet that we say we need a joker for this or that,” said Roos.

“We will check now, especially when we have our first 24-hour race here in Le Mans under the belt if there are areas where we where we think maybe we have to do something.

“But generally, I’m still of the opinion that the cars are quite close together. There is also a BoP behind which [organizers] should be able to manage to bring the cars even closer together and this should be the approach to at the end balance the field.

“Because if everybody uses jokers and develops the car then first of all, it’s an expensive topic, and the other thing is it also makes it difficult again to have the BoP in the right window because then you start all over again.

“We all see, also in other championships, that as long as the cars are quite stable it’s much easier to bring the cars and adjust them to the to the same window.

“So we have to clearly look into if there are topics where you say, ‘Okay, this is a topic where you really have to look into and maybe use a joker’ or are there other ways to equalize this.”

Roos: BMW Should Aim to Close in on Second-Year LMDh Brands

BMW is currently in the midst of its maiden WEC campaign and has thus far scored a best finish of sixth in the rain-hit 6 Hours of Imola.

Roos noted the progress that has been made by some of the LMDh manufacturers that are in their second season of WEC, saying that BMW should aspire to close the gap to those brands.

“Porsche’s [done] a good job, I have to say,” said Roos. They worked very hard and they did a good job, so your first goal is to beat them.

“You also have to take this and work hard and and try to beat them and that’s it. That’s what we are working on to be honest and this is our goal at the end.

“We also want to be the ones winning the races and this is our motivation, to improve [and] work even harder.”

Roos added that BMW’s rate of progress is complicated somewhat by the tight turnarounds between WEC and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship rounds, which makes development between races more challenging.

“I also had some some chats with Roger Penske and he also said that the first year for them was also very difficult,” he said.

“But the problem is also always, when you when you see how tight our schedules are with with IMSA race, WEC races and all going on so that the time to really work and develop is very difficult.

“So sometimes, when you have one year under the belt to really say okay these are the areas and then try to to work on them.

“Our goal is to win and when somebody has an edge on us, we have to beat them and work harder.”