BMW had reached out to Magnussen in 2023, earlier than Haas retained him for one more season, however BMW swooped in when Haas stated it was not renewing his contract for 2025.
“When you find yourself working in motorsport at such a excessive stage, particularly Method 1, for 10 years, that is positively one thing which is already a giant asset,” Andreas Roos, the top of BMW M Motorsport, stated in an interview. “He can deliver this data, work angle and every little thing; once you handle to remain on this excessive competitors for such a very long time then you’re among the finest racers on the planet, then on prime along with his expertise additionally in sports activities automotive racing for us it was an ideal match.”
Roos expects Magnussen to “adapt in a short time” to the BMW M Hybrid V8, although he factors to the collaborative nature of sports activities automotive racing as one space wherein Magnussen might want to readjust. At Daytona, which begins on Thursday, he’ll share driving duties within the No. 24 BMW with Philipp Eng, Dries Vanthoor and Raffaele Marciello.
“You drive collectively along with your teammates, so that you don’t have your automotive to your personal, you all the time should discover a little bit of a compromise,” Roos stated. “Ultimately, there are 4 drivers within the automotive, and everyone has his personal concept and, let’s say, ‘fine-tuning.’ However on the finish, the blokes should work as a crew and discover the quickest compromise the place they will drive rapidly with the automotive and have a profitable package deal on the finish.”
BMW has two IMSA wins since its program started in 2023 and had its first end on the rostrum in W.E.C. in late 2024.
“Clearly our mind-set is profitable the race,” Roos stated. “We wish to win the race — we wish to win each race. We’re not there simply to be a automotive on the grid, we wish to be aggressive and win races. It’s clearly our objective. It’s our third 24-hour race in Daytona, we did fairly some enhancements particularly within the second half of the season in W.E.C. and in addition in IMSA.”
