Vanthoor Banking on LMP2, GTE Experience in Hypercar Step

Dries Vanthoor believes his previous experience in both the LMP2 and GTE ranks at the 24 Hours of Le Mans will help him as he steps up to the Hypercar class with BMW M Team WRT.

The Belgian will share the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 with Marco Wittmann and Raffaele Marciello at the French endurance classic, which will mark the first time the German manufacturer has competed for overall honors at the event in 25 years.

Out of the three drivers, Vanthoor is by far the most experienced at Le Mans, with Wittmann and Marciello both making their event debuts.

Vanthoor, by contrast, has four Le Mans starts at the event, split equally between LMP2 and GTE machinery.

In 2017, he took a GTE-Am class win on debut with JMW Motorsport before driving a HubAuto Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 in GTE-Pro four years later.

Subsequently, he formed part of the LMP2 class for two consecutive years, first with Team WRT in 2022 and with Racing Team Turkey last year.

All of that experience will help Vanthoor be “more comfortable” heading into the weekend, he told Sportscar365.

“It does for sure,” he said. “I know the track quite well now. I’ve done it a few times. Le Mans in general, the race, and also running it in an LMP2, I know the downforce parts.

“I know how to go around the track with some downforce. So I do think it helps. It was a good thing to do.

“I do think that it was positive and I’m happy I did that because I just feel a bit more comfortable going into the sessions now this week and also into the race.”

Vanthoor reckons that, in terms of traffic management, the 16-car LMP2 class will provide the biggest challenge for the Hypercar contenders.

“So that would be a car that would be a bit more difficult to overtake fast, I think,” he said.

“Especially because they are also quite fast on the straights. They have similar downforce. But the GTs, I think it will be quite okay to manage.

“I think traffic is important in races like this, in multi-class racing, but I think for us it should be quite okay.”

Vanthoor, Marciello and Wittmann remain without points after three WEC rounds, with a best finish of 11th at the most recent race at Spa-Francorchamps.

The Belgian believes the underwhelming results on paper have been masking the No. 15 crew’s performance, which Vanthoor says has been comparable to the sister car that notably secured sixth at Imola.

“If you look at the end results and not looking into the entire race, indeed, the No. 15 has always been a bit down,” Vanthoor said.

“But if you look at the entire race, I think it’s always a different story. Because in Qatar, in general, we were both a bit struggling.

“But before we had our issue, we were in front of the No. 20, so we then had an issue which we had to solve and we lost a few laps.

“Then Imola, okay, we got involved in the first lap, the first corner tangle. I wouldn’t say [that] all [led from] my mistake I did in quali, which made us start in the back, but for sure starting in the back always makes life a bit more difficult.”

“And then I think Spa could have been a decent result. But then, unfortunately due to some issues and some mistakes, it got taken away on that.

“But I think, indeed, if you look at the end result, it’s been behind. But I think looking at the pure race and performance and speed wise, I think it’s the same.”