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BMW M Motorsport wrapped up its FIA World Endurance Championship campaign with a punishing eight-hour run under the Bahrain floodlights, where outright pace proved hard to find in both Hypercar and LMGT3. The #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde, René Rast and Robin Frijns mounted a determined charge from 15th on the grid, working its way into the top ten to finish eighth after a long day of tyre and traffic management. The sister #15 car of Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor saw its race end in the final hour, forced into retirement by a technical issue just as the chequered flag came into view.
In LMGT3, the BMW M4 GT3 EVO crews had to graft for every position after recent visits to the podium. The #31 entry of Augusto Farfus, Timur Boguslavskiy and Yasser Shahin came home seventh, underlining the team’s progress at a circuit that had been far more difficult the previous year. The #46 BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Valentino Rossi, Kelvin van der Linde and Ahmad Al Harthy was boxed in the pack and classified 15th, its day further shaped by the timing of the final safety car, which blunted any late charge through the field.
The wider season, however, showed that the BMW package has genuine bite. In Hypercar, the #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid V8 scored a landmark podium at Imola, proving its one-lap pace and long-run consistency against established rivals. The LMGT3 crews added four rostrum finishes of their own, with the #46 car taking second place at both Imola and Austin, while the #31 machine delivered third in Doha and Fuji. Against a grid stacked with manufacturer-backed entries, regular appearances in the top three demonstrated that BMW M Motorsport and Team WRT have laid firm groundwork for the future.
Bahrain also marked the handover to the next phase of development. At the traditional post-season Rookie Test, Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts were due to sample the BMW M Hybrid V8 for the first time, with Sheldon van der Linde providing benchmark laps as reference. For Sheldon and Marciello, the focus now switches to the FIA GT World Cup in Macau, where they will tackle the daunting Guia street circuit in BMW M4 GT3 EVOs entered by Team WRT and ROWE Racing. After a learning-heavy year in the world championship, both the drivers and BMW M Motorsport head into 2026 determined to convert hard-earned data into sharper pace and a sustained push for titles.
