BMW reveals LMDh IMSA livery | GRR
BMW has announced its drivers for the 2023 IMSA season and revealed the M Hybrid V8’s livery, and if you’d guessed the car would be running with the classic BMW red, purple and blue colours you were spot on. We have to say, this looks like quite the machine.
First of all, the drivers. Announced at a launch event at the Peterson Museum in Los Angeles, Philipp Eng, Augusto Farfus, Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly will be behind the wheel of the two M Hybrid V8s entered in the GTP class of the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship next year.
The regular driver line-up will be supported by additional drivers at the longer events, namely the Daytona 24, 12 Hours of Sebring, Six Hours of Watkins Glen and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. Those racers haven’t been announced yet, with the exception of IndyCar race-winner Colton Herta who’ll be in one of the cars at Daytona.
As for the livery, it’s a mix of black, blue, white and red, as we saw on the prototype earlier in the year at the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard, when the prototype sat at the very top of the Central Feature celebrating 50 years of BMW M. That livery celebrated BMW's history, but the racing one is much neater, with a huge ‘M’ featuring across the engine cover that runs from the cockpit back to the rear wing. It isn’t something we’d normally care too much about, but the thin light strips that run around the car’s kidney grille look fantastic and will really help set the M Hybrid V8 apart from its rivals once the sun sets at Daytona.
Not only will the car compete in IMSA, but from 2024 we’ll see it compete on this side of the Atlantic in the World Endurance Championship. Could the M Hybrid V8 live up to the success of its predecessor, the V12 LMR, and take victory at Le Mans?