WRT to combine LMP2 programme with BMW LMDh testing in 2023

Team boss Vincent Vosse has insisted that the 2021 WEC class title-winnning squad will maintain a two-car presence in the series in 2023 as it gears up to graduate to the Hypercar class with the BMW M Hybrid V8 in 2024.

“We will run two cars in LMP2: that is the plan today and normally that should be the case,” Vosse told Motorsport.com.

“We will start testing next year with the BMW and will have a nice schedule in Europe alongside the IMSA programme in America [run by the Rahal team].”

Vosse wouldn’t divulge when WRT will receive its first M Hybrid V8, which has been developed in conjunction with Dallara, nor any details of the test programme.

“We are running a full BMW programme in LMDh, so it is up to BMW to announce it,” he stated.

Vosse explained that WRT will have the ability to test the BMW independently of its planned WEC campaign with pair of Oreca 07-Gibsons.

“As an organisation we are already more than 100 people, but of course we will need extra personnel to run the LMDh in 2024,” he explained.

“The plan is that everyone will come together for the final two WEC rounds of 2023, so the team we run in those races is the team that will be running the BMWs in 2024.“

He said that it remains too early to talk about drivers for next year’s LMP2 programme, but it appears likely that Rene Rast will remain part of the squad after the announcement that he is leaving Audi to join BMW for 2023.

This season, the team has a link-up with Swiss entrant Realteam for one of its two Orecas.

Vosse wouldn’t be drawn on WRT’s plans for the GT3 arena next year after the announcement of its split with long-term partner Audi, which came a day before confirmation of its partnership with BMW in the WEC.

He reiterated the team’s intention to remain in GT3, a division in which it has been ultra-successful since the formation of WRT in 2010.

It can be taken as read that WRT will run the new-for-2022 BMW M4 GT3 in a familiar programme based around the GT World Challenge Europe.

Confirmation of that could be some way off, because BMW traditionally announces its partner teams and their programmes in GT3 at its annual prize-giving in December.

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