Building a championship-caliber sports car program from scratch in four months is a daunting task, but Dries Vanthoor is helping steer BMW’s top-class GTP effort through a rapid operational evolution in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

Now in his second full-time IMSA season, the 28-year-old Belgian driver finds himself at the center of a major transition for the manufacturer. Following last year’s campaign with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing as BMW’s factory partner, which featured three podiums and a win (Road America), the German brand shifted its efforts to Team WRT - the outfit it already built a Hypercar relationship with in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the same outfit Vanthoor has extensive history with. The revamped squad made an immediate statement with a podium at the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, but turning fast starts into long-term dominance is requiring more patience.

Building a full-scale IMSA program from scratch in just four months required significant adjustment, a reality Vanthoor acknowledged when comparing the transition between RLL and WRT's infrastructure as BMW’s factory partner.

“Obviously, I think it's always very different,” said Vanthoor, co-driver of the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 alongside Sheldon van der Linde. “It's a completely new program for us. It's a lot of new people. A completely new structure. We've always been used to having our structure in Europe and now we have to do a completely different structure in the U.S., which is different. Also, the way of working, working with people. And this takes time.

“I do think we've seen some signs of it (working), which is very positive, but we've also seen already some things which aren’t really positive, which we have to work on. But I think that's also normal. You can't expect to build up – I don't know, they did it in four months – I think they built up the whole thing. So, I don't think you can expect it to be working from the first race onwards.”

Despite the operational growing pains, speed and execution have surfaced across key events this year. In addition to the #24 entry's third-place result at Daytona earlier this year, the #25 sister car has snagged two more podiums, including a runner-up finish in Detroit.

“Good things take time, they always say,” said Vanthoor, who also captured a victory in last month’s Six Hours of São Paolo with the program’s arm in WEC. “So hopefully in some more time it will get together. I do think it is, obviously, we've got good people, and I do believe that it will get better, and we will be able to fight for victories. I do think we are. We’ve had good races already this season where we showed good pace and good strategy from the guys. So, we just have to keep working and keep making sure to get all the little, little mistakes out of our system.” 

#24 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde

Photo by: Brandon Badraoui / Lumen via Getty Images

The cross-continental synergy between WRT’s WEC and IMSA efforts has yielded tangible progress on track compared to previous seasons, with the BMW M Hybrid V8 regularly challenging near the front of the grid in both championships.

When asked about the program's distance from its ceiling and the refinements required moving forward, Vanthoor noted the global progress while highlighting the remaining details needed to fine-tune the package.

“On a global aspect, or looking into the involvement of the car, also on the WEC side, I think this is positive,” Vanthoor said. “I think if you look now in WEC and IMSA, we are both sometimes or most of the time, trying to fight at the front, compared to last year. That was a bit more difficult, so that is positive.”

The focus now turns toward polishing operational consistency and vehicle refinement as the team builds toward long-term contention. 

“And I think it's just the main things. We used to have small issues with getting things right on the car, making sure that communication is well within the team and small things like that, which are normal in a new setup,” Vanthoor said.

“I think we are not far away, but I do think we still have some points to improve. We still have some points on the car to improve. So, I think we still have to work hard and maybe by the end of the year or for sure next year, I think we have a complete package where we can say that we can fight for something nice.”

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