WRT voices massive criticism of the BoP following the Spa 24 Hours

The Belgian WRT racing team competed in the Spa 24 Hours with three BMW M4 GT3s. The BMW works team entered two cars in the top class and had a clear objective: to fight for victory. The highest-placed WRT car after the day-long battle around the Ardennes rollercoaster was the M4 GT3 driven by Valentino Rossi, Max Hesse and Dan Harper, which finished sixth. “We weren’t in the running,” admitted a disappointed team principal Vincent Vosse immediately after the race.

“Of course, there was a BoP adjustment after Superpole, and that’s very regrettable. You only do something like that if the starting point is poor or the BoP isn’t right. As I can see, it was clearly still not right even after the race. It’s also up to you, the media, to judge what happened. It was a brilliant race, a very successful and perfectly organised event. I merely regret this confusion, which was caused by a poor BoP and prevented some from taking part in this celebration,” said Vincent Vosse regarding the BoP change on the morning of race day. “There were clearly mistakes made with this pre-race BoP adjustment. I had no contact with anyone whatsoever after the race. I never asked for a better BoP than the others. Neither the team nor our drivers have anything left to prove. With our line-up, we must have the right to fight for pole positions, victories and the fastest laps in the race.”

According to the Belgian team principal, the Ferrari and Porsche cars had a clear advantage, as he explained to Endurance-Info: “Ferrari and Porsche were the two marques that clearly stood out from the rest. Mercedes-AMG drove a perfect race and finished second, just as we did when we came second at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 is the benchmark amongst the GT3 cars in the championship. You could say that we win championships, but that depends above all on perfect pit stops and flawless strategies. We can only win if the others make mistakes or have mechanical problems. We are no longer happy with this situation.”

Former professional racing driver Vosse has issued an ultimatum to the SRO and announced an official statement from the team: “This situation has become untenable and will not be without consequences. A statement will be published shortly. Things cannot go on like this.”

The situation is reminiscent of last year, when BMW and the WRT team also had no chance of victory at the major highlight of the year. “BMW and WRT received an apology from the SRO after the 2025 Spa 24 Hours because they – and I’ll put this very clearly – hindered us,” recalls Vosse.

The team boss, accustomed to success, is calling for changes to the SRO’s BoP process, which is used not only in the GT World Challenge Europe but also in series such as the DTM and the ADAC GT Masters: “If a driver makes a mistake on the track, he is penalised, and that’s normal. As a team, we have to become ever more professional. It takes ten engineers to get two cars onto the track, whilst on the other hand a single person in an office carries out complicated calculations. You have to realise that it doesn’t work like that.”

However, Vincent Vosse does not wish the criticism of the BoP to be interpreted as criticism of the race in general, nor does he wish to detract from the winners’ performance: “None of this detracts in any way from the winners’ performance, because everyone who was able to compete at the very front battled under the same conditions. On Sunday morning, when four or five cars were within two seconds of each other, I sent Stéphane Ratel a message saying: ‘How I would have loved to have taken part in this race!’