Inside BMW's long-awaited prototype racing return

Much like German OEM rival Porsche, BMW's absence from sportscar racing’s top flight will be ended this weekend when a pair of M Hybrid V8 prototypes make their debut in the Daytona 24 Hours. A programme focused on the IMSA SportsCar Championship for now will expand to the World Endurance Championship and Le Mans next year, in a sign of both its ambition and pragmatism

BMW is back, shooting for outright honours in the big sportscar races after an absence of nearly a quarter of a century.

The German manufacturer’s attempt to follow up on its Le Mans and Sebring successes of 1999 with the V12 LMR begins at this weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours with a new LMDh prototype called the M Hybrid V8. It won’t be back at the Le Mans 24 Hours until 2024. And the reason for that can at least partially be explained by an ultra-tight timeline for a project described internally as a “zero error programme”.

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.