Rene Rast believes that the BMW Hypercar pairing and the WRT squad have raised their level in the FIA World Endurance Championship this season, with the German manufacturer sitting second in both the drivers’ championship and the manufacturers’ standings.
The BMW M Hybrid V8 claimed its first WEC victory courtesy of Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 20 entry at Spa, finishing ahead of the sister WRT car, and then backed that up with a strong second place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month.
Rast said he hadn’t anticipated such a marked improvement before the campaign began and credited the updated Evo package as playing a major role in BMW’s progress, while also pointing to other contributing factors.
“The Evo package for sure is the biggest part of it but also I think we as drivers are on a better level compared to the last years,” he told Sportscar365.
“In the past years you could see small mistakes from the drivers here and there, penalties, whereas this year we haven’t done a single one. No penalties, no contact, which is also very important.”
“As drivers we raised our game, the team raised their game — it was a collective step up from every department.”
“The car is better to drive in a better window — it’s more consistent — and also the tires have changed and they seem to suit our car as well a little bit better, so there’s lots of things that have contributed to that success not only is it the Evo package.”
Rast also noted that WRT’s takeover of the BMW M Hybrid V8s in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for the current year, in addition to its WEC program, has yielded numerous benefits.
“I think it makes a huge difference if you have two programs in the same team because you can learn from each other,” he added.
“They went testing at Atlanta this week and then we might try something out for the WEC program as well. You gain some experience that you can use for WEC so it’s a nice bonus.”
Frijns admitted that BMW is still working to fully understand the updated Evo package, notably the manner in which the car’s pace shifted in Spa after a difficult qualifying session.
“We were surprised in Spa we were so competitive because we had this different strategy and got in the clean air and the car suddenly started working,” Frijns, who is enjoying stronger results after feeling the sting of tougher seasons, told Sportscar365.
“We’re still investigating why we were performing so well in Spa in free air.”
Despite the overall rise in competitiveness—The No. 20 car also finished fifth at Imola to begin the season, leaving the crew four points short of the pacesetting Toyota in the drivers’ standings—Rast isn’t sure where BMW will sit in the order at Interlagos this weekend.
“Every time we come to a track from last year it’s like a reset because we don’t know which cars will suit the track better this year compared to last year,” he said, referencing the large number of new and updated machines on the Hypercar grid for this season.
“Hopefully we will play a role and have a top-three result or maybe a top-five result. As long as we score points it’s good because we want to fight for a world championship.”
“If we can sneak some points away from Toyota and be leading the championship after this weekend, I think we’ve fulfilled our goals.”
