Van der Linde: WRT on Unlucky End in First GTP Season

Photo: Sam Cobb/BMW

Sheldon van der Linde believes that BMW Team WRT has been on the unlucky end in its first season of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP competition.

The Belgian squad, which established a brand-new U.S. outpost and dedicated crew after taking over BMW’s factory GTP program, kicked off its campaign with a third place finish in the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona with its No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8.

While the sister No. 25 BMW of Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann had visited the podium on two occasions, including a runner-up finish in Detroit, van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor have slipped to ninth in the points standings with two races to go.

When asked what he believes has been the difference between its FIA World Endurance Championship program, which has netted two wins and a podium at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year, and WRT’s WeatherTech Championship efforts, the South African indicated it’s been largely down to luck.

“I think in IMSA you need a lot of luck to bring the result home,” van der Linde told Sportscar365. “Obviously we’ve had very good pace in the last few races but we just haven’t had the luck.

“It’s a gamble; it’s like going to casino a lot of the times when you’re driving in IMSA.

“Obviously you’re betting on yellows coming out and if they don’t come out, you’re pretty screwed and you’re back of the field.

“We had the reliability issue at Road America, which didn’t help. I think we would have been able to win the race there or even at least be on the podium if we just made it to the end.

“It’s just a combination of not having the luck on our side. It’s been a few in a row so it’s difficult to always blame it on luck clearly.

“We’ve just been on the wrong side of the ball every time in terms of strategy, and we know WRT is the best in the business for that.

“It’s worked out for Car 25 twice when they were on the podium when we necessarily didn’t have the best pace.

“It’s worked out for our team in general but on our side of the garage, not so much in that case.

“I’m looking forward to getting the ball rolling with some wins and podiums. I think we deserve it. We’ve been up there.

“At Laguna we were on for a good result and Road America as well. We’ve been up there consistently but we just need to get the result now.”

Vanthoor, who enjoyed a four-race pole-win streak with previous operator Team RLL last year, believes the unlucky run this year could also be down to the still-new and developing WRT U.S. operation.

“Obviously it’s difficult,” he told Sportscar365. “We started up a [U.S.-based] team at the end of last year from scratch and I think a lot of people forget how difficult it is to build up a team in general.

“To build up a team in a couple of months’ time is another topic, it’s even extra harder.

“I think we’ve been having some issues which we have to improve. We’re getting better and better on that. Obviously it’s normal and part of the game when you build a new team that some mistakes happen.

“They happen a little bit more often that we like, maybe. But I think that’s normal.

“That obviously cost us quite a bit this season but at the end of the day I think we’ve also showed that we’re always strong and we have a competitive car and that we can be very fast.

“We have to take those positives. We’ve also not been very lucky this season so far but we also have to be honest.

“Especially me and Sheldon and also our engineers, we looked this season as to bring everybody together to their maximum and next year we’re going to go for it.

“But you always want to win so it’s always a bit frustrating when you can’t get it.”

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