Van der Linde ‘Motivated to Push’ for Back-to-Back Titles

Photo: JEP/SRO

Kelvin van der Linde said he’s motivated as ever to “carry on pushing” for another championship in GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS after taking both the Sprint and overall titles alongside Charles Weerts last year.

The South African, who joined BMW as a factory driver at the start of the 2025 season, enjoyed a breakout campaign in SRO Motorsports Group-run GT3 competition, which also included wins in the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, Nürburgring 24, as well as the Suzuka 1000km and Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS en route to the Intercontinental GT Challenge title.

While van der Linde will not be able to defend his IGTC crown, due to his return to DTM, which clashes with the final two rounds of the globe-trotting GT3 series, the 29-year-old believes continuity in his core GT3 program will reap benefits.

He will again team up with Weerts for the full season, with longtime friend, and newly minted BMW works pilot Jordan Pepper, completing the lineup for the five Endurance Cup races, beginning with this weekend’s six-hour season opener at Paul Ricard.

“It’s great because I think the stability is good for any team,” van der Linde told Sportscar365.

“It means we shift our focus from working on driving and feeling comfortable to shifting the energy towards improving the car and improving the setup on a race weekend.

“That’s a big shift in terms of the way your weekend goes. If you have to start the weekend building confidence, it’s more difficult.

“Generally we had a very successful season last year as BMW Motorsport. Naturally it’s very difficult to repeat that. There’s so many top lineups and teams every year and the focus is on us after the year we had last year.

“For sure they’re not going to make it easy for us to come and defend the titles but that also gives me the extra motivation to go and execute better, make less mistakes and essentially that’s what wins championships.

“I’m confident in terms of execution. As we’ve proven in the past, we’ll be spot on with that. I’m motivated to carry on pushing for another title.

“There’s other manufacturers and teams that also want to do some winning. We’ve got work to do.”

Van der Linde believes McLaren and Aston Martin, which b0th upped their games last year with increased factory-supported entries, will be manufacturers to watch in the upcoming campaign.

“If you look at the trend from last year, a lot of the British manufacturers seem to be eyeing at race wins and are looking more and more competitive, especially Aston Martin,” he said.

“McLaren had a big resurgence last year. It also looks like they’re putting in a bigger effort in terms of sending factory drivers into their programs.

“Naturally those guys are, for me, the ones that are going to make the step that it requires to fight for a title.”

Weerts, meanwhile, noted the high level of competition that saw the Sprint Cup title go down to the wire at Valencia last year.

“In Sprint we managed to get the title in the very last race,” he told Sportscar365. “We saw how tough it was for everybody. The level is very high

“As we can see each year, it gets more and more difficult to be there and to fight for the top spot.

“This season will definitely be the same. It’s going to be very difficult. But we have a very strong car and a very strong lineup. I’m very happy to have Jordan join the lineup.

“Everybody knows how quick he is and everybody knows how quick Kelvin is also. We all know how good WRT is to get the cars in the right window and to race at the right strategy.”

The only GTWC Europe title van der Linde, Weerts and WRT didn’t win last year was the Endurance Cup, which went to Rutronik Racing’s Sven Mueller, Patric Niederhauser and Alessio Picariello despite the No. 32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO claiming a win in the season-opening 6 Hours of Paul Ricard.

“I think it’s going to be up to us to deliver to where we belong and hopefully we can fight for a championship in Endurance Cup,” added Weerts. “I don’t think any of us three have won yet.”

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