Vosse: Full-Time U.S. BMW GT3 Effort “Not On the Table” for ’26

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

WRT team principal Vincent Vosse has ruled out a full-time GT3 presence in either the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship or GT World Challenge America powered by AWS next year, amid the Belgian powerhouse squad’s expansion to North America.

The multi-time GT3 championship-winning organization, which recently opened an massive 220,000 square-foot headquarters near Liege, will expand to the U.S. next year, having struck a deal to rent shop space at the Haas F1 Team in Kannapolis, N.C., near Charlotte, ahead of an expected full season WeatherTech SportsCar Championship program operating the two factory BMW M Hybrid V8s in the GTP class.

While the top-class WeatherTech Championship program has yet to be officially confirmed by BMW, Vosse has already ruled out seeing the team’s BMW M4 GT3 EVOs in North America on a consistent basis next year, outside of a possible one-off effort at the Indianapolis 8 Hour Intercontinental GT Challenge round, as it typically has entered.

This is believed to focus entirely on its LMDh efforts that will also include a continuation of two cars in the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship, along with a two-car LMGT3 entry in the world championship and multiple other GT3 programs in series such as GTWC Europe and a recently announced Asian Le Mans Series effort.

When asked about the potential of running M4 GT3 EVOs in the States full-time next year, Vosse said: “It’s not on the table [for next year].”

He added: “Of course we’d love to it at some stage as we are [establishing] a base in the U.S. and we’re pushing our team to grow in the U.S. Why not?

“We have a lot of experience in GT3.

“To run it from the U.S. [next year] is nearly impossible. It’s too late. To run it from Europe would be very expensive.”

The team is set for an extremely busy winter, with its newly announced Asian Le Mans program with a pair of GT3 entries, featuring the already confirmed drivers of Fabian Duffieux and Mathieu Detry, as well as American Bronze-rated racer Anthony McIntosh in the second car.

The 2025-26 Asian LMS season kicks off at Sepang on Dec. 13-14, prior to a trip to the Dubai Autodrome on Jan. 31-Feb. 1, the week after the Rolex 24 at Daytona, before concluding the season one week later at Yas Marina Circuit on Feb. 7-8.

WRT has also been a regular competitor, and reigning winner, of the Michelin 24H Dubai, which is scheduled for Jan. 16-18 this year, the same weekend as the Roar Before the Rolex 24, while the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour is scheduled for Feb. 13-15.

“Obviously we had a lot of requests,” said Vosse on the reason to expand into Asian Le Mans. “Some of them are interesting to prepare for next season in both WEC and GT World Challenge.

“Our business is to run GT3 cars and when there is an opportunity to do it in a good condition, like in Asian Le Mans Series, we’d like to do it.”

When asked if the team plans to again contest the 24H Dubai, Vosse said: “I hope so. We like that race.”

WRT, which also won this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour, has not ruled out a return to the Australian international enduro, as well as mounting a similar-sized Intercontinental GT Challenge program next year.

The team has so far contested all IGTC rounds except for the Nürburgring 24 and is coming off a dominant victory in last weekend’s Suzuka 1000km.

“IGTC, this is another topic, because this is a BMW [decision],” said Vosse. “I guess we had so far a good success together in IGTC, so why not try to keep that?

“There are teams complaining that don’t have anything to do. It’s always a compromise but we are a big group of people now at WRT.

“We just adapt and we try to do the races where we feel we have an opportunity to do well.”

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