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The 24 Hours of Le Mans will have to celebrate its 100th birthday in 2023 without a BMW. Car manufacturer from Munich does without the LMDh debut.

- In 2023 the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans should shine in new splendor: Just in time for the 100th birthday of the endurance classic, an armada of car manufacturers is returning. Toyota, Glickenhaus and, after a twelve-year absence, Peugeot, too, are starting in the hypercar class with their LMH cars.

The real boom, however, should trigger the LMDh category, which is also capable of winning, in which, in addition to Cadillac and Acura, the three German heavyweights Audi, BMW and Porsche will also be involved from 2023. However: The 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023 will apparently take place without a BMW!

BMW Motorsport Director Mike Krack has now for the first time publicly confirmed what has been circulating as a rumor for some time. In the first year of the new bolides, the carmaker from Munich will limit itself to deployments in the US IMSA series, in which the LMDh cars can compete parallel to the WEC.

"We have a tight timeline and not a lot of experience in the segment," said Krack in an interview with Motorsport aktuell. "This means that we have to focus, we can't dance at all weddings. That's why we're not racing at Le Mans in 2023 either. In the first year of the LMDh project, we're concentrating on America, the world's most important M- Market."

Audi and Porsche 2023 without BMW in Le Mans
This means that BMW's start in the WEC endurance world championship in the 2023 season is also off the table. Audi and VW sister company Porsche had meanwhile announced that they wanted to compete with their LMDh cars in both the sports car world championship and the IMSA.

At the middle of this year it was not yet clear at BMW M whether a start in the Le Mans 24h race was an option. The Munich-based company had initially only announced one IMSA program, but the former BMW-M managing director Markus Flasch said to Motorsport-Magazin.com at the time : "The use in the WEC and in Le Mans is absolutely possible. We'll look at it very carefully at." On November 1, 2021, Flasch was replaced by its predecessor, Franciscus van Meel, and returned to series production by the BMW Group.

Porsche rollout still in 2021 - BMW six months behind
Krack attributed the decision not to start the most famous race in the world at Le Mans to the short development time for the car that BMW recently presented as a concept study. And in fact, the Munich-based company is close to the German competition. Porsche had already committed itself to the new prototype class on December 16, 2020 - six months before BMW - and pushed ahead with the preparations.

With Multimatic, Porsche's chassis partner has also been determined, and each manufacturer can freely choose from a certain pool. The company, which is experienced in motorsport, also supplies its sister company Audi with chassis for the LMDh prototype. According to information from Motorsport-Magazin.com , the combustion engine in the Porsche and Audi also comes from a single source, with Porsche having the upper hand in the development of the V8 unit.

According to our information, the rollout of the Porsche prototype will even take place in mid-December of this year on the Weissach factory premises. "We're six months behind, that's the reality," said BMW man Krack. "That's why we try to give preference to a lot of things that we didn't want to do until the car is moving."

Krack: Everything has to work now
Engineers from former works projects in the DTM and Formula E are involved in the development of the so-called BMW M LMDh; the car is being built by chassis partner Dallara in Italy. The rollout will not take place until next year on the course in Varano. In order to familiarize itself with long-distance prototypes, BMW has also purchased an LMP2 car.

With the long-standing partner team Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing (RLL for short), the IMSA team for the two LMDh cars has been determined. Krack: "In general, the development is a hot ride, because if you want to be at the start in Daytona in 2023, the car has to be homologated in the summer of 2022, and the core test phase has to be completed by then. We don't have a large amount of time in reserve. everything has to work now."

https://www.motorsport-magazin.com/2...h-auto-absage/