BMW Re-Wrote Code After “Serious” Issue in Practice

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA

Connor De Phillippi revealed that BMW M Motorsport engineers re-wrote software for its LMDh car, which involved the use of a driver-in-the-loop simulator in Munich, during the Long Beach weekend that helped propel the team to its second consecutive podium finish.

De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly recorded a second place finish in Saturday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, with the American setting the race’s fastest lap in the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 in the 100-minute contest.

“In general, a very promising result as a team,” De Phillippi said. “[Nick] drove a brilliant first stint and it was clear we had the pace.

“We went longer than everybody else to give it some time and see what they were doing with tires.

“At the end it looked like everyone was staying calm, cool and collected, which wasn’t the normal Long Beach. It looked like it was maybe going to go all green so we opted to go for four tires after the Porsches didn’t take any.

“We knew they would most likely cycle ahead of us with the out laps but we were hoping to try to have better tires in the end, which we did, we had the pace.

“But Mathieu [Jaminet] and Matt [Campbell] drove brilliantly and the Acura cut through the field as well. I made a mistake, which was on me, but I think we all saw when you got close you had to make a move.

“You could either gain two seconds or lose two seconds in traffic so you had to be very opportunistic.”

It came as the most competitive outing for the German manufacturer’s LMDh car to date, although the weekend began in a challenging way according to De Phillippi.

“After FP1 we had some serious issues and we had the guys back in Munich on the DIL trying to replicate it and solve them,” he explained.

“We re-wrote code between then and now and fixed it.

“It’s just incredible the volume of people and the effort that goes into these programs is tremendous. I’m just really proud to be in this top category.”

Long Beach marked the team’s first prototype race on a street circuit, which also added to the steep learning curve.

“The Penske and Ganassi guys that have run DPi in the past, they all have a toolbox coming to this track; we had nothing,” said De Phillippi.

“To roll off the truck and be in a window where we were straight away was very impressive from the team. And the issues we had, we were working as a group to solve them.

“There’s still a lot to be done but I think we can take this a feather in the cap and try and find the areas we need to improve on and try to go to Laguna with an even better car.”

Yelloly added: “Every session we made some improvements, at least with drivability.

“The cars are so complex nowadays with the way you can map them with software and then actually getting a hold of car setup, as BMW and RLL had not run out here in a prototype at all.

“We were always rocking up and trying to our best estimates from the simulation back at base in Munich to roll out as fast as we can. We seem to have done that better each time, the more data we get.

“If we can keep doing this — we still have a lot of work to do if I’m honest — there’s still plenty of things we can get on top of. Then I’m sure we’ll be a rocket in no time.”

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