Rast ‘Staying Realistic’ for BMW’s Hypercar Debut

BMW M Team WRT is ‘making progress’ with understanding its Hypercar package according to Rene Rast, who stated that the team should stay “realistic” for its first FIA World Endurance Championship outing and aim for a points finish.

The pair of BMW M Hybrid V8s will line up 15th and 16th for the Qatar 1812km, which will mark the Hypercar debut for the Dallara-chassised BMW M Hybrid V8.

Rast told Sportscar365 ahead of Saturday’s ten-hour race that he believes BMW has been making progress across the Prologue and the three Free Practice sessions at the Lusail International Circuit, but stressed that the Munich manufacturer is still in the middle of its learning curve in WEC.

“The car has been in IMSA for one year, so we don’t start from scratch like Lamborghini or Alpine but still, I think we still need to adapt to this championship and a different style of racing,” he said.

“We just need more time, I guess like everybody else who is coming new to the championship to compete against Toyota who have been in the championship from the first day on.

“It’s difficult to compete against those brands but we try our best. I think we have made progress.

“Little steps which you might not see on lap times, but in terms of driving comfort and understanding the package.”

According to the German, who shares the No. 20 car with Sheldon van der Linde and Robin Frijns, BMW is “getting there” in terms of understanding what it takes to climb up the pecking order.

However, for the first race, Rast took the view that the team should take a pragmatic approach.

“We have to be realistic,” he said. “We know what we can do and what we can not do.

“Scoring points, I think that’s already a good goal to have. There are 19 cars and lots of them are very competitive.

“I think if we score points we did a lot of things right and the others maybe had some issues or maybe penalties or whatever.

“I think we need to stay out of trouble. No penalties, no major problems and then we just might go with the flow and see what happens in the end. But I think top ten would already be a good first result for us.”

The three-time DTM champion also expects a race where gaining track position through on-track passes might be difficult, pointing out that there is really only one good overtaking spot around the Lusail venue.

“Turn one but the rest is very flowy,” said Rast.

“And if you follow you obviously have to aero wash from the car in front. You can’t really follow close in high speed. So you need the traffic to get the momentum and pass somebody.

“I think for us it’s not about taking high risks. We need to finish the race to collect data and [see] if we can score points.

“It’s not about being the one lap hero and at the start trying to gain five positions. I think for us it’s about staying on track.

“Making the best out of what we have actually and then see where we end up.”