At the foot of the podium at Sebring, BMW was “a little unlucky” with the Full Course Yellow

Another failure for BMW. It is not during 12 hours from Sebring, Saturday, that the German manufacturer found its way back to the podium, the last of which dates back to September 17, in Indianapolis. And yet, BMW was in the game throughout the race, until the final minutes.

If the two M Hybrid V8s were still slightly behind the racing pace compared to the Cadillacs, Acuras and Porsche, however, they played at the forefront for some time thanks to a clean performance, without any problems encountered either with the piloting or with reliability. After eight hours of racing, Maxime Martin was even in the lead aboard the No. 25!

Unfortunately, BMW lost the podium at the end of the race because of… a Full Course Yellow. “The 12 Hours of Sebring was exciting until the end. The places were only decided in the last hour. Our BMW M Hybrid V8 showed during the race that its pace was good. Ultimately, we were a little unlucky with the timing of one of the last FCYs, which allowed some competitors to return to the fight for the lead., regrets Andreas Roos, head of BMW M Motorsport.

“Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to make the podium, but it's good to see that our hard work since Daytona paid off and we were able to significantly improve the performance and reliability of the cars », adds the German leader, encouraged by the performance of his crews at Sebring. Indeed, if BMW was unable to repeat the result of 2023 – a podium snatched in the final moments thanks to the collision between the three leading cars – the brand with the propeller was able to fight regularly for the Top 3.

BMW still has shortcomings compared to other GTPs

“Last year we were very lucky and finished second. This time our cars were much more powerful, but with a little less luck we finished fourth and sixth. It's good, but it's not yet where we want to be, said Bobby Rahal, team principal of BMW M Team RLL. The team's pit stops were good, the cars were reliable, but of course we can still improve for the next races. »

If the No. 25 of the trio Maxime Martin – Connor De Phillippi – Nick Yelloly finished in 4th place after leading the 12 Hours of Sebring for a few minutes, the No. 24 was much more discreet in the hands of Philipp Eng, Augusto Farfus and Jesse Krohn. The latter explained after the race that the BMW had experienced some mishaps, including a slow puncture at the start of the race as well as a damaged rear wing.

“We still don't know what was wrong with our car. It was weird for all the drivers and we couldn't achieve the times we wanted, underlined Jesse Krohn. I was the first to suffer from it, then Philipp and Augusto also experienced the same problem. Now we need to analyze this precisely. However, I think we managed to limit the damage. We scored important points. It could have been much worse. »

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