BMW had approached Magnussen in 2023 before Haas retained him for another season, but BMW stormed out when Haas said it would not renew his contract for 2025.
“When you work in motorsport at such a high level, especially in Formula 1, for 10 years, that is definitely something that is already a big advantage,” Andreas Roos, head of BMW M Motorsport, said in an interview. “He can bring that knowledge, work attitude and everything. when you manage to stay in this high competition for such a long time, then you are one of the best racers in the world, then on top of his experience in sports car racing for us it was perfect.”
Roos expects Magnussen to “adapt very quickly” to the BMW M Hybrid V8, although he points to the collaborative nature of sports car racing as an area where Magnussen will need to readjust. At Daytona, which starts on Thursday, he will share driving duties in the No. 24 BMW with Philipp Eng, Dries Vanthoor and Raffaele Marciello.
“You drive with your teammates so you don’t have your own car, you always have to find a compromise,” Ross said. “In the end, there are four drivers in the car, and everyone has their own idea and, let’s say, ‘fine tuning.’ But in the end, the guys have to work as a team and find the fastest compromise where they can drive the car fast and have a winning package at the end.”
BMW has two IMSA wins since starting its program in 2023 and had its first podium finish in the WEC at the end of 2024.
“Clearly our mentality wins the match,” Roos said. “We want to win the match – we want to win every match. We are not there just to be a car on the grid, we want to be competitive and win races. It is clearly our goal. It’s our third 24 Hours of Daytona, we made a lot of improvements especially in the second half of the season in WEC and also in IMSA.”
