The partnership between BMW and iRacing continues to grow, with the Bavarian manufacturer’s new Le Mans Daytona hybrid prototype in development for the sim racing platform.
The premium Munich-based performance car creators will be returning to the top level of prototype motorsport next year, entering IMSA’s GTP category, before an attack on the 2024 World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
During the 2022 BMW Sim Live event today (29th October), the real-world project leader Maurizio Leschiutta revealed that the BMW’s M Hybrid V8 is scheduled for release virtually in December.
“To be honest, I was very sceptical at the beginning,” said Leschiutta.
“The intellectual property and competitive edge over our competitors is closely guarded.
“I’d heard a lot of good things from my colleagues… about iRacing. We had a lot of meetings and calls with the team, and I was really impressed with the measures they took with confidentially.”
“iRacing gets very, very, precise data from BMW, from the drivers, from the engineers, and that’s very special,” said real-world BMW driver and 2012 DTM champion Bruno Spengler.
“It’s coming to iRacing possibly as soon as December,” said Matthew Trivett on the broadcast.
“It’s so cool that the BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh is coming to iRacing so soon.”
The car is the first-ever hybrid BMW competition vehicle, mixing electrification with a twin-turbo V8. It follows the BMW LMR V12 that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 12 Hours of Sebring in 1999, and in a sim racing sense, the BMW M4 GT3 which debuted in iRacing last year.
Update: 30th October, 5 am BST
Release date confusion
The BMW Sim Live broadcast mentioned December 2022 as the launch date on two occasions. However, the BMW Motorsport Twitter account states 2023.
It’s possible that it will launch in December 2022 for the ‘2023 Season 1’ which is traditionally launched before Christmas. We’ll update you as soon as we hear more.
Images: BMW
