BMW and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing are set to part ways at the end of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, RACER.com’s Marshall Pruett has confirmed.
Following DSC’s story earlier this year that BMW looked set to switch service provider in IMSA’s GTP class, RLL team co-owner Bobby Rahal has revealed to Pruett and RACER that his team’s relationship with the German marque, which began in 2009, is “coming to an end.”
Pruett also reports that Team WRT is set to take over the reins as BMW’s IMSA service provider in GTP, adding to its FIA WEC Hypercar effort with the M Hybrid V8. The Belgian team has seemingly won out after the decision on a new partner was understood to have been delayed from earlier this year to allow for the US trade policy on tariffs to settle.
There are a number of key details still to be confirmed for BMW’s GTP programme from 2026 onwards. This includes the location that the new-look GTP effort will be run out of, and whether or not WRT will contest the full season or scale back to an Endurance Cup only programme.
While BMW Motorsport boss Andreas Roos was not on hand today to speak with reporters at the FIA WEC meeting in Brazil, a brand spokesperson confirmed the news to DSC. “It’s true, we will not be with RLL in GTP next year,” they said.
“We are currently working out what our future looks like with them, in historic racing and in our spare parts service. Right now, we cannot confirm anything more about what the programme will look like in 2026. We are going through internal discussions right now and will have more to say after decisions are made later this month.”
As for WRT, team principal Vincent Vosse was, unsurprisingly, unable to confirm whether his team would be taking over as BMW’s GTP partner team.
“As I always said, we would be interested (in GTP). But it’s not in our hands at the moment,” he told DSC.
When asked specifically whether or not he could confirm WRT was in talks with BMW to take over the contract, he added: “No. I mean, we’ve been discussing it generally. But, I was surprised to hear that there was an article from RLL.
“I’m not going to comment on it.”
For more information, read Pruett’s full story on RACER HERE >>>
This story was updated to include a statement from BMW and comment from WRT
