Kevin Magnussen will be part of BMW’s World Endurance Championship driver line-up plus three endurance rounds in the IMSA Sportscar Championship as the German manufacturer unveils its LMDh plans for next year.
The former Formula 1 driver will slot into the #15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 squad alongside Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor, effectively replacing Marco Wittmann in the line-up who heads to BMW’s IMSA LMDh programme, while the sister #20 car has an unchanged line-up of Robin Frijns, Rene Rast and Sheldon van der Linde.
Magnussen's previous sportscar experience counts a season with a Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac DPi-V.R during the 2021 IMSA campaign, in which he and Renger van der Zande won in Detroit.
He also made a single Le Mans 24 Hours start in the LMP2 class in 2021 and made a Gulf 12 Hours cameo aboard a Ferrari 488 GT3 in 2022.
BMW also enters its third season in the IMSA Sportscar Championship in 2025 with RLL, with van der Linde and Vanthoor taking on a dual role, competing as regular drivers in both the WEC and the IMSA. Vanthoor will share the #24 BMW with Philipp Eng, while van der Linde and Wittmann will drive the #25 sister car.
Due to schedule conflicts between the WEC and IMSA, BMW will only run two drivers per car at the WEC Spa-Francorchamps round in May, with Vanthoor and van der Linde competing in IMSA’s Laguna Seca round on the same weekend.
Meanwhile, for the endurance IMSA races, BMW will call on its full roster in 2025. Magnussen will join the #24 car for the Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring 12 Hours and Petit Le Mans, with Marciello joining that entry as the fourth driver for the Daytona 24 Hours in January.
In the #25 car, Frijns will dovetail Magnussen’s programme, with Rene Rast named as the fourth driver for that car at Daytona.
“For our driver line-up, this means focusing and specialising,” Andreas Roos, head of BMW M Motorsport, said. “The more time our drivers spend behind the wheel of the BMW M Hybrid V8, the better they will get to know its handling and the more feedback they can provide to our engineers.
“The goal is to intensify the development of the BMW M Hybrid V8 in collaboration with the specialists at the teams and at BMW M Motorsport. It also helps us in this regard, that some drivers compete in both championships, thereby further improving the exchange of information. We are convinced that this way joining our forces will bring us advantages.”
Earlier this year, the WEC considered banning two-driver line-ups in the Hypercar class – a proposal put forward by the WRT BMW squad – but once it was abandoned BMW saw the opportunity to use the option.
“Of course, the schedule overlap in May is not ideal, but we have the regulatory option to compete in a 6-hour FIA WEC race with two drivers per car, which we will utilise,” Roos added.
“The fact that the season starts in January with the 24-hour race at Daytona is very beneficial for us. This allows us to have all eight drivers together for an extended period early in the season, helping us to optimally synchronise with each other.”
Briton Nick Yelloly, who raced an RLL BMW in IMSA for the past two seasons, has departed its roster to join the Meyer Shank Racing Acura team with van der Zande.
The announcement made no mention of either Jesse Krohn, who partnered Eng to BMW's only win of the 2024 IMSA season at Indianapolis, or Connor De Phillippi, who shared with Yelloly for the past two seasons.
