Vosse: Daytona Podium “Big Boost” for WRT’s IMSA Foray

Photo: Sam Cobb/BMW

BMW Team WRT’s maiden podium finish in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona came as a “big boost” for the Belgian squad’s foray into the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship according to team principal Vincent Vosse.

The team’s No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor, Robin Frijns and Rene Rast finished a surprise third in the Florida endurance classic after both of the team’s GTP entries came to life in the race.

Its sister No. 24 BMW came home eighth in a race that was largely dominated by Porsche Penske Motorsport.

“Of course this helped a lot, to have this podium in Daytona was a big boost for the team as it was our first race there,” Vosse told Sportscar365.

“It’s so different. You’re doing something completely different.

“There is still a lot of work, some improvements, to be done. But we take the podium, we take the points. We had both cars finish the race. I think it was a positive weekend.

“Of course, normally, we’re not fighting for P3. But with IMSA, we have to look at it step by step over how we can improve this and to put ourselves in a situation to one day winning.”

Vosse admitted they didn’t expect to be in a podium-contending position in the race after being at the bottom of the results in the build-up to the race.

“Everyone could feel the frustration of the team, the drivers, during the week. We had a very difficult Roar,” he said.”We had a very difficult practice and qualifying.

“We were not there. The turnaround for the race was a big boost. We finally found something. It was a combination of things and we were able to turn around.

“We were strong in terms of strategy. We were making the right calls.

“Everything is new for us.”

Vosse said the majority of its crew for the upcoming Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring will be its newly dedicated U.S.-based staff.

“Last September we had four or five people out of 47 [in America],” he said. “It’s stressful when you know that we had to build up a car, which we did in collaboration with RLL.

“We did the sanctioned test in collaboration with RLL. Then we had to take the decision on who would be the crew for Daytona, so we did a mix of WEC and IMSA people.

“Taking this into account, we can be very proud of what we achieved in Daytona. It doesn’t mean it is what we want but it’s a first big step.

“Sebring will be probably something like 90 percent [U.S. crew]. It was planned like that.

“Now we have everyone but we still want to support our knowledge [from WEC].

“Long Beach will be the first [fully separated] program as we will be in Imola.”

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