BMW and RLL confirm end of GTP cooperation after 2025

(Motorsport-Total.com) - It's been rumored for a while, and now it's official: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) and BMW will part ways after the 2025 season. The contract will not be extended, and the German manufacturer is looking for a new team for its US campaigns.

Bobby Rahal first confirmed the split in an interview with Racer : "We are of course disappointed that our motorsport partnership with BMW is coming to an end after so many successful years. It has been a privilege and an honor to represent BMW on the racetracks of America and Canada. Now it is time to face new challenges."

BMW has now also announced the end of the collaboration in an official statement. For now, this only affects the GTP program in the IMSA SportsCar Championship.

BMW North America is interested in continuing other projects with RLL, such as a classic car involvement. Concrete details are not yet available, as discussions are still ongoing.

Two wins in 2.5 years – too few for a GTP factory team

RLL had come under increasing criticism in the GTP program. While there were some individual successes, such as the one-two finish at Indianapolis in 2024 or Dries Vanthoor's impressive pole series this season, too often the strategy didn't match the race, pit stops took too long at crucial moments, or the pace was simply lacking when it mattered.

The bottom line is that there have only been two victories so far: the one-two at Indy as the program's greatest success - and the inherited victory at Watkins Glen in 2023. For a partnership that once won GT titles and regularly fought for class victories, this is too meager a record.

Bobby Rahal's team has also been on a downward spiral in the IndyCar Series recently. After their last major coup—Takuma Sato's 2020 Indy 500 victory—they have only managed one more success: Christian Lundgaard's victory in Toronto in 2023. The team had won every year from 2015 to 2020.

Signs point to WRT

Despite the split, BMW intends to stick with the GTP program. There are many indications that WRT, already responsible for the WEC program, could also take over the IMSA commitment. However, this would require a significant expansion, as WRT would have to establish an independent US branch.

Another option would be to limit the IMSA program to the five long-distance races of the Michelin Endurance Cup, as BMW needs to save money after a 37 percent drop in profits in the 2024 fiscal year . In this case, the effort could even be managed with the existing WEC staff.

RLL is looking for options

RLL is looking for a new manufacturer. "We're currently in discussions with several manufacturers for 2026 and beyond. We have a fully lined up team; all it takes is one manufacturer to turn the key," said Bobby Rahal.

"We are proud of our successful collaboration with BMW over the past 17 years and would like another manufacturer to partner with us and take us on board. Mike Lanigan and I have also discussed LMP2, a fantastic class."

Genesis will enter the IMSA SportsCar Championship with the GMR-001 for the 2027 season. The other newcomers, Ford and McLaren, have not yet committed to an IMSA involvement. A collaboration with Alpine, which plans to enter the US market starting in 2027, is also possible. However, the company has not yet committed to an IMSA project.

A transitional year with a customer BMW remains an option. But a move away from endurance racing is also conceivable: Rahal is bringing Indy NXT (formerly Indy Lights) and the NASCAR Truck Series into play.

BMW and RLL: 17 joint seasons in the USA

When BMW and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) announced their collaboration in early 2009, it marked the beginning of one of the most influential manufacturer-team alliances in North American sports car racing of the past decade and a half.

What began as a GT2 program in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) developed over the years into a factory effort with a high level of technical depth, culminating in the GTP program with the BMW M Hybrid V8.

The first appearance was in March 2009 with two BMW M3 E92 GTs in the GT2 class. In just the second year of the partnership, the team won the ALMS team championship with the M3. In 2011, the team was even more successful, clinching the title with one race left. Drivers like Bill Auberlen, Dirk Müller, Joey Hand, and Dirk Werner shaped this first phase of success.

With the switch to the Z4 GTE in 2013 and the American sports car merger into the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2014, a new era began in which BMW fielded US-specific vehicles that were rarely used outside the USA. RLL was unable to repeat the major championship triumphs of the early part of the decade; in 2015, Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner narrowly lost to Porsche driver Patrick Pilet.

Starting in 2016, BMW switched to the new M6 GTLM, a car that took a different technical direction with its twin-turbo V8. The car's performance was on the up again. In 2017, the M6 GTLM won five of eleven races in the GTLM class, but both cars narrowly lost out in the championship battle to the consistent Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia.

In 2018, the switch to the M8 GTE, BMW's most ambitious GT factory project to date, followed. The car became a meme on social media due to its insane size, but RLL still won the Endurance Cup with the new car in 2018. In 2019, they took a class victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona, a victory they repeated in 2020.

Despite these successes, it was "only" enough for another endurance title, and the overall championship remained eluded by RLL. In 2020, John Edwards and Jesse Krohn again failed to win the title against Corvette, this time with Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor. 2021 (only endurance races in the final GTLM year) and 2022 (premiere of the M4 GT3 in the new GTD Pro) were transitional years, with the LMDh project already underway in the background.

This represented new territory for both parties: For RLL, it was the first top-class commitment in prototype racing, and for BMW, the return to the highest sports car league since the end of the V12 LMR project in 2000. While the start was promising, results stagnated from 2024 onwards. Even a restructuring for 2025 did not change the situation. The collaboration will end after the 2025 Petit Le Mans.