Andreas Roos said BMW M Motorsport “can be proud” of its runner-up finish in the FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar manufacturers’ title, in a season that delivered two wins and three additional podium finishes.
The German manufacturer and Belgian Team WRT squad had its best season yet since debuting in 2024 with the BMW M Hybrid V8, which also saw the No. 20 entry of Sheldon van der Linde, Rene Rast and Robin Frijns come less than 11 seconds away from victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Its run in last weekend’s season-ending 6 Hours of Monza was dashed by a drive-through penalty for the No. 15 BMW of Kevin Magnussen for passing under a yellow flag, and an apparent electrical issue that put Robin Frijns into a series of spins and off-track excursions in the No. 20 entry.
“We were at least fighting for a podium position, I would say,” Roos told reporters post-race. “I would not say it was a surprise, but it looked like the race pace was not too bad.
“For sure our starting positions were not ideal but we managed to move, with both cars, up and it was really looking good.
“But then on one car we had a penalty from Kevin’s mistake and the 20 car, we had an electrical issue in the end, which we have to analyze, which caused some issues for the drivers.
“This is why Robin was struggling so much. It was not down to Robin, it was an issue on the car which we have to understand. For sure it was a shame because maybe a podium was there in the final, which would have been nice.
“But we secured P2 in the manufacturers’ championship and also P3 in the drivers’ championship.
“In the end we can be happy and some boxes ticked.”
The No. 15 crew of Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello ended up third in the drivers’ world championship, four points ahead of teammates Frijns and Rene Rast, who ended on a tie with the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R duo of Sebastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber, who along with Jack Aitken, won Sunday’s season finale.
“The last few years, we were coming back into [top class] sports car racing for BMW after the last time in 1999,” said Roos. “Now at the end we were fighting with Toyota, which has been in the championship without any breaks since 2012, I think it’s a great achievement.”
“We can be proud. It’s a big thank you to everybody who is involved from the team, the drivers, all the people in Munich at BMW M Motorsport who work so hard every single day to move forward.”
WRT team principal Vincent Vosse added: “We can be proud of what we have achieved in the 2026 season.
“Of course, we always compete to win titles, but in this highly competitive world championship, second and third places in the manufacturers’ and drivers’ championships are very good results.
“Unfortunately, we experienced technical problems with the No. 20 car during the race, which set it back. We need to improve in this area for 2027.”
When asked why the team had a rather challenging second half of the season, at least on paper, Roos said it came down to a number of factors.
“I wouldn’t say there was bad luck or whatever,” he said. “But also today, I think we would have had the chance from pure speed to be on the podium but we didn’t have a clean race.”
“On one car we had a penalty, the other car a technical issue, and then in such a strong championship like the WEC, you would not manage to be on the podium.”
“Our performance didn’t decrease [in the second half of the season], we had one or the other bad luck in this situation.”
“At one stage we had both cars in the top-five and P2 in the race. It would have been nice for everybody to have one car finish with one car on the podium and one car in P5, but that’s how it is.”
This report also includes input from Stephen Lickorish
