 | |
| Founded | 2009 |
|---|---|
| Teamprincipal(s) | Vincent Vosse René Verbist Yves Weerts |
| Current series | FIA World Endurance Championship GT World Challenge Europe Intercontinental GT Challenge |
| Former series | European Le Mans Series ADAC GT Masters Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Blancpain GT Series FIA WTCR TCR Belgian Touring Car Series Andros Trophy FIA GT3 European Championship Belcar |
| Teams' Championships | 33(last 2024 GT World Challenge Europe Overall) |
| Drivers' Championships | 30(last 2024 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup - Silver Cup) |
W Racing Team (known asTeamWRT) is aBelgianauto racing team founded in 2009 by engineer and former head ofVolkswagen Motorsport René Verbist, racing driver Vincent Vosse, and entrepreneur Yves Weerts. Between 2010 and 2022 the team campaignedAudi R8 LMSs in several internationalsports car series. In 2010 the team won theBelcar Drivers' and Teams' Championships, while in 2011 they won theSpa 24 Hours.[1] After winning multiple titles in various GT championships, WRT is considered to be one of the best teams worldwide in GT racing. In 2019 and 2020 WRT ran two Audi RS5 Turbo DTMs in the highly competitiveDTM championship. In 2021 WRT added a full time LMP2 program, by entering anOreca 07 in both theFIA World Endurance Championship andEuropean Le Mans Series, and won theLMP2 class of the2021 24 Hours of Le Mans. From 2023 on WRT switched their partnership in GT racing from Audi to BMW and will run theBMW M4 GT3. The team will also run two factory backedBMW M Hybrid V8s in theFIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar category from 2024.
Upon the team's founding in late 2009, WRT purchased threeAudi R8 LMS race cars as part of being the official Belgian Audi motorsport importer. The trio of cars shared duties in 2010 between the nationalBelcar Endurance Championship, the FrenchFFSA GT Championship (now GT Tour), and the mid-seasonSpa 24 Hours. The team had success from the start, finishing on the podium with at least one car in every Belcar race including two wins byGregory Franchi andAnthony Kumpen and a third victory in a ten-hourendurance race atCircuit Zolder with François Verbist, Bert Longin, and Bill Bailly. Franchi and Kumpen locked up the Drivers' Championship, while WRT secured the Teams' Championship. Franchi also partnered with Stéphane Lémeret to earn two further podium finishes in FFSA GT. In addition to this program, twoVolkswagen Scirocco GT24s were purchased for use in theBelgian Touring Car Series where the team were vice-champions in their category.
Following their first year's success, WRT expanded their program for 2011 by adding theFIA GT3 European Championship[2] andBlancpain Endurance Series to the schedule for their Audis. Once again success came early as WRT won the second of two races in the first event of the FIA GT3 Championship with Franchi partneringEnzo Ide. Their GT Tour program under the title of Team Audi France with French driversDavid Hallyday andStéphane Ortelli also earned its first victory for the team atDijon-Prenois. In July WRT won theSpa 24 Hours in only their second attempt, with Franchi sharing the drive with factory Audi driversTimo Scheider andMattias Ekström.[1]
WRT announced further expansion of their program in 2012 with accepted entries in theFIA GT World Championship as the representatives of Audi.[3] They went on to finish third in the Teams standings, winning three races on the way. In 2013 WRT won both the Teams' and Drivers' Championship of the newly namedFIA GT Series.
In 2014 WRT competed both in theBlancpain Endurance Series andBlancpain Sprint Series, successor of the FIA GT Series. They won both the Teams' and Drivers' Championship in theBlancpain GT Series as well as in the Blancpain Endurance Series. They also won the Teams' Championship in the Blancpain Sprint Series. In July 2014 they added a second win in theSpa 24 Hours withLaurens Vanthoor,René Rast andMarkus Winkelhock at the wheel of an Audi R8 LMS. In 2015 they again won both Teams' and Drivers' championships in the Blancpain GT Series. They were also crowned Teams' Champions in the Sprint and Endurance Series. In May 2015 WRT achieved another major success by winning the24 Hours of Nürburgring with the new version of theAudi R8 LMS (GT3).
In 2016, WRT made their debut inTouring car racing, running pair of Volkswagen Golfs in theTCR International Series under the Leopard Racing badge. Driving for the team wereStefano Comini andJean-Karl Vernay. WRT also made their debut in theEuropean Le Mans Series running aLigier JS P2, but only at the 4 Hours of Spa. They won the TCR International Series Drivers' titles in both 2016 and 2017, with Comini and Vernay respectively. In 2018 and 2019 WRT participated in theWorld Touring Car Cup fielding a pair ofAudi RS3 LMSs.
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In 2018 WRT won theBathurst 12 hour race with theAudi R8 LMS (GT3), at their first attempt. On 12 October 2018 WRT announced it would run a pair ofAudi RS5 Turbo DTMs in the2019 DTM season as a customer team.[4] They later announcedJonathan Aberdein andPietro Fittipaldi, grandson of double Formula One World ChampionEmerson Fittipaldi, as their two drivers for the season. Although not scoring a single podium, Aberdein was able to impress with several points scoring positions and finished the season in 10th place as the highest ranked rookie. In August 2019 WRT won the2019 Suzuka 10 Hours, which was the 48th edition of theSummer Endurance Classic at Suzuka.
At the end of 2019, WRT announced an all new line-up for the2020 DTM season consisting of2016 Indy Lights championEd Jones andFIA Formula 3 driverFabio Scherer. Later WRT announced they would enter a third car forFerdinand Habsburg, who had previously been driving for Aston Martin. Before the season started Jones pulled out of the championship due to travel complications as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was subsequently replaced byHarrison Newey, who made his debut in the DTM. Habsburg managed to score his and the team's first podium finish as well as a pole position. As a result of Audi's exit at the end of the season it was decided that theClass One formula would be dropped and replaced by GT3 machinery. WRT ultimately decided not to enter the DTM in 2021.
After exiting the DTM, WRT announced their intention to enter the LMP2 class in theFIA WEC to prepare for an eventual program in the newLMDh formula. On 21 January the team officially announced it would enter the FIA WEC with anOreca 07.[5] The drivers will beRobin Frijns,Ferdinand Habsburg andCharles Milesi. WRT later announced that they would also enter an Oreca 07 in theELMS driven byRobert Kubica.[6] He will be joined byLouis Delétraz andYifei Ye. The team once again was successful from the offset and won the first two races of the ELMS championship.
Team WRT decided to enter both cars at the2021 24 Hours of Le Mans. After taking the lead during the first half of the race WRT was on course to score a sensational 1-2 finish on its Le Mans debut. However, at the start of the last lap car #41 driven by Yifei Ye came to a stop due to a technical fault and was unable to make the finish, giving the win to the sister car #31 who crossed the finish line just over 7 tenths in front of the chasing Oreca 07 fromTom Blomqvist.[7]
Adding to their Le Mans victory, Team WRT ended the 2021 season winning both the Drivers' and Teams' titles in theFIA WEC andELMS. This means the team won all possible titles in their debut LMP2 season. Additionally WRT won five out of six possible titles in the GT World Challenge series with their GT operation, rounding off their most successful season to date. In 2022 WRT will expand to two full season entries in theFIA WEC. WRT also continues to run severalAudi R8 LMS in theGT World Challenge Europe and will field a car forMotoGP legendValentino Rossi in 2022. He will team up with Audi Sport factory driversFrédéric Vervisch andNico Müller. In January 2022 WRT won theDubai 24 Hour for a second time. In the GT World Challenge Europe, the team won theSprint Cup Teams' title for the ninth time in ten years while WRT driversDries Vanthoor andCharles Weerts won the Drivers' title for the third time in a row. This marked the end of an incredibly successful partnership withAudi Sport acrossSRO championships where the team earned several wins and won multiple titles.[8] From 2023 WRT will field severalBMW M4 GT3s. In the FIA WEC, WRT was unable to retain its LMP2 titles despite winning four out of six races due to a bad result at the24 Hours of Le Mans where points count double.
On 15 January 2023 WRT won theDubai 24 Hour for the third time after having previously won the2016 and2022 editions. This marked WRT's first outing with BMW and immediately resulted in theBMW M4 GT3's first major 24 hour race victory. In February WRT also contested the first two rounds of the2023 Intercontinental GT Challenge atBathurst andKyalami. WRT scored a 1-2 win at theKyalami 9 Hours. In theFIA World Endurance Championship WRT once again entered twoOreca 07s in the LMP2 class. At the2023 24 Hours of Le Mans WRT's #41 car finished second only 20s behind the winner, which was enough to give the #41 car driven byRobert Kubica,Louis Delétraz andRui Andrade the lead in the championship. The trio went on to claim the 2023 FIA WEC LMP2 championship rounding of the season with 3 wins and 6 podiums in 7 races. WRT ended the LMP2 era in WEC with 10 race victories in 19 races and two championship wins in three seasons.
While never officially announced WRT had been chosen by Audi to run theirLMDh program in the 2023 FIA WEC Hypercar class. However, days before the first rollout of the car Audi decided to stop the program, officially stating it was putting it on hold.[9] As a result WRT started looking to other options to enter the class in the WEC series. On 2 August 2022 WRT announced it would terminate their 13 years long partnership in GT racing withAudi Sport. Hours laterBMW Motorsport announced that Team WRT would run their factoryLMDh program in the FIA WEC. WRT will start extensive testing of theBMW M Hybrid V8 in 2023 before entering the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship.[10] In addition to the Hypercar program WRT will also switch to BMW machinery for their GT3 efforts. The team confirmed that they would enter severalBMW M4 GT3's starting from 2023. On November 27 2023 the2024 FIA WEC entry list was revealed confirming that WRT would enter a total of four cars. TwoBMW M Hybrid V8's in the Hypercar class that will compete for the overall wins as well as twoBMW M4 GT3's competing in the newly formed LMGT3 class.[11] For their first season in Hypercar the #15 BMW will be driven by long time WRT driverDries Vanthoor, two timesDTM championMarco Wittmann andRaffaele Marciello coming over from Mercedes. The #20 car will be shared bySheldon van der Linde,Robin Frijns andRené Rast. In the LMGT3 the #31 will be driven by Indonesian driverSean Gelael swithcing from LMP2,Augusto Farfus and Darren Leung. On the #46 carValentino Rossi will be lining up with his regular teammateMaxime Martin and Omani driverAhmad Al Harthy.
After a difficult start in Hypercar the team started to show improvements from the 24 Hours of Le Mans on, where Dries Vanthoor put the BMW M Hybrid V8 first during the qualifying session. However, both cars suffered crashes during the race early on preventing any good result. At the6 Hours of Fuji the #15 car achieved it’s best overall qualifying result in 3rd and improved to 2nd in the race. This was BMW’s first overall podium in theWorld Endurance Championship. WRT eventually secured 5th place in the manufacturers standings forBMW in their maiden season in Hypercar. In the LMGT3 WRT enjoyed much more success. After a strong debut inQatar, WRT scored a 1-2 win atImola thanks to a very good strategic decision to leave both cars on slick tires during the rain. This marked BMW’s first win in any class in the WEC. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans both cars looked in the hunt for the win. However, the #46 car driven byAhmad Al Harthy crashed out in the early night in tricky conditions. The #31 BMW M4 GT3 eventually ended up 2nd, only a handful seconds behind the winningPorsche fromManthey Racing. Both cars ended the season in 4th and 6th position in the standings.
| Year | Entrant | No. | Car | Drivers | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 |  Team WRT | 31 | Oreca 07-Gibson |  Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi | LMP2 | 363 | 6th | 1st |
| 41 |  Louis Delétraz Robert Kubica Yifei Ye | 362 | NC | NC | ||||
| 2022 | Team WRT | 31 | Oreca 07-Gibson | Robin Frijns Sean Gelael Rene Rast | LMP2 | 285 | DNF | DNF |
| 32 |  Mirko BortolottiRolf IneichenDries Vanthoor | 366 | 15th | 11th | ||||
| RealTeam by WRT | 41 |  Rui AndradeFerdinand HabsburgNorman Nato | 362 | 21st | 17th | |||
| 2023 | Team WRT | 31 | Oreca 07-Gibson | Robin FrijnsSean GelaelFerdinand Habsburg | LMP2 | 327 | 13th | 5th |
| 41 |  Rui AndradeLouis DelétrazRobert Kubica | 328 | 10th | 2nd | ||||
| 2024 | BMW M Team WRT | 15 | BMW M Hybrid V8 | Raffaele MarcielloDries VanthoorMarco Wittmann | Hypercar | 102 | DNF | DNF |
| 20 | Robin FrijnsRené Rast Sheldon van der Linde | 96 | NC | NC | ||||
| Team WRT | 31 | BMW M4 GT3 |  Augusto FarfusSean Gelael Darren Leung | LMGT3 | 280 | 28th | 2nd | |
| 46 |  Ahmad Al HarthyMaxime MartinValentino Rossi | 109 | DNF | DNF |
* Season still in progress
| Year | Entrant | Class | No | Chassis | Engine | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Pos. | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Team WRT | LMP2 | 47 | Ligier JS P2 | Judd HK 3.6 L V8 | Will StevensDries VanthoorLaurens Vanthoor | SIL | IMO | RBR | LEC | SPA 2 | EST | 11th | 18 |
| 2021 | Team WRT | LMP2 | 41 | Oreca 07 | Gibson GK428 4.2L V8 | Louis DelétrazRobert KubicaYifei Ye | CAT 1 | RBR 1 | LEC 5 | MNZ 4 | SPA 1 | ALG 2 | 1st | 118 |
| Year | Team | Drivers | Car | Car# | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Audi Sport Team WRT | Robin FrijnsStuart LeonardDries Vanthoor | Audi R8 LMS GT3 | 37 | GT3 - APP | 271 | 1st | 1st |
Pedro LamyMathias Lauda Paul Dalla Lana Will Davison | 39 | GT3 - APA | 267 | 14th | 8th | |||
| 2023 | Team WRT | Sheldon van der LindeCharles WeertsDries Vanthoor | BMW M4 GT3 | 32 | Pro | 323 | 4th | 4th |
| Maxime MartinValentino RossiAugusto Farfus | 46 | Pro | 322 | 6th | 6th | |||
| 2024 | Team WRT | Sheldon van der LindeCharles WeertsDries Vanthoor | BMW M4 GT3 | 32 | Pro | 120 | DNF | DNF |
| Maxime MartinValentino RossiRaffaele Marciello | 46 | Pro | 275 | 5th | 5th | |||
| 2025 | Team WRT | Sheldon van der LindeKelvin van der LindeAugusto Farfus | BMW M4 GT3 | 32 | Pro | 306 | 1st | 1st |
| Charles WeertsValentino RossiRaffaele Marciello | 46 | Pro | 306 | 2nd | 2nd |
| Year | Car | No | Driver | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | DC | Points | TC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Audi RS5 Turbo DTM | 27 | Jonathan Aberdein | HOC1 1 15 | HOC1 2 12 | ZOL 1 Ret | ZOL 2 12 | MIS 1 8 | MIS 2 7 | NOR 1 13 | NOR 2 14 | ASS 1 6 | ASS 2 4 | BRH 1 9 | BRH 2 13 | LAU 1 14 | LAU 2 7 | NÜR 1 4 | NÜR 2 5 | HOC2 1 14 | HOC2 2 Ret | 10th | 67 | 7th | 79 |
| 21 | Pietro Fittipaldi | HOC1 1 10 | HOC1 2 15 | ZOL 1 14 | ZOL 2 9 | MIS 1 | MIS 2 | NOR 1 Ret | NOR 2 15 | ASS 1 11 | ASS 2 10 | BRH 1 DNS | BRH 2 16 | LAU 1 7 | LAU 2 9 | NÜR 1 15 | NÜR 2 13 | HOC2 1 15 | HOC2 2 15 | 15th | 22 | ||||
| 34 | Andrea Dovizioso | HOC1 1 | HOC1 2 | ZOL 1 | ZOL 2 | MIS 1 12 | MIS 2 15 | NOR 1 | NOR 2 | ASS 1 | ASS 2 | BRH 1 | BRH 2 | LAU 1 | LAU 2 | NÜR 1 | NÜR 2 | HOC2 1 | HOC2 2 | NC | 0 | ||||
| 2020 | Audi RS5 Turbo DTM | 10 | Harrison Newey | SPA 1 13 | SPA 2 Ret | LAU1 1 10 | LAU1 2 12 | LAU2 1 15 | LAU2 2 13 | ASS 1 12 | ASS 2 15 | NÜR1 1 14 | NÜR1 2 13 | NÜR2 1 11 | NÜR2 2 11 | ZOL1 1 5 | ZOL1 1 6 | ZOL2 1 7 | ZOL2 1 9 | HOC 1 Ret | HOC 2 13 | 14th | 27 | 7th | 103 |
| 13 | Fabio Scherer | SPA 1 12 | SPA 2 12 | LAU1 1 14 | LAU1 2 11 | LAU2 1 11 | LAU2 2 13 | ASS 1 15 | ASS 2 Ret | NÜR1 1 15 | NÜR1 2 16† | NÜR2 1 Ret | NÜR2 2 14 | ZOL1 1 13 | ZOL1 1 5 | ZOL2 1 5 | ZOL2 1 Ret | HOC 1 13† | HOC 2 12 | 16th | 20 | ||||
| 62 | Ferdinand Habsburg | SPA 1 DNS | SPA 2 15 | LAU1 1 6 | LAU1 2 10 | LAU2 1 11 | LAU2 2 14 | ASS 1 8 | ASS 2 7 | NÜR1 1 11 | NÜR1 2 15 | NÜR2 1 7 | NÜR2 2 62 | ZOL1 1 7 | ZOL1 1 7 | ZOL2 1 32 | ZOL2 1 101 | HOC 1 11 | HOC 2 14 | 10th | 68 |
