2025 was ‘the wake-up call we needed’ at BMW: Sheldon van der Linde on the upcoming WEC season
- Marios Gantzoudis
- 2 hours ago
- 10 min read
The 2026 World Endurance Championship (WEC) season draws closer and DIVEBOMB spoke with BMW M Motorsport driver Sheldon van der Linde about last season’s challenges, personal development and goals for the upcoming season.
Around the same time last year, the No.20 BMW M Hybrid crossed the line in second place in the 6 Hours of Imola. Rene Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde stood on the podium and the team looked to have broken through, roaring for the marque’s maiden WEC win.
Around the same time last year, the No.20 BMW M Hybrid crossed the line in second place in the Six Hours of Imola. René Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde stood on the podium, and the team looked to have broken through, roaring for the marque’s maiden WEC win.
Instead, the remainder of the season proved more difficult, with performance and execution inconsistencies alongside some technical issues. While falling short of expectations, Van der Linde views last season as a necessary step in BMW’s quest for WEC success.
Speaking to DIVEBOMB, the South African reflected on the main takeaway from 2025:
“The key lesson was probably that the competition is tougher than ever. I don't think we underestimated it, but I think it was also just the wake-up call we needed at some point to say: ‘Listen, we're up against the best. If we want to win and be in the top three at the end of the year, we need to raise our game in all levels.”
BMW and Team WRT were notably honest in their assessment of a disappointing campaign, with Van der Linde sharing that view.
“It's not about trying to make excuses for bad results, it's about using those results and really push ourselves forward. Those are really the challenges that have really built this project up, because after some of the tough races we did have quite a hard debrief together and said: ‘Guys, it's not good enough. We want to improve. We want to be on the podium and win races’.
“And if we want to do that, we need to step up our game. I think we have definitely aimed to do that over the off-season.”
After Le Mans, the team found themselves in a performance plateau, which, along with some reliability issues, meant that BMW picked up just 24 points from the last six races of the season, compared to 63 from the first two.
Van der Linde noted that among factors outside of the team’s control, such as Balance of Performance (BoP), there is an internal view that execution was not quite at the required level.
“We also feel like we didn't exploit the potential of the car that we had. So yeah, there are a few execution issues, reliability is still something we're working on in our car. So the performance is always more or less there, but at one or the other race, we had these kind of issues along the way where we couldn't execute a clean race like we wanted to. And that's really been holding us back from getting on the podium again and scoring good results.
“In my opinion, if we can try and keep the car pace and maybe improve it slightly more, but just execute better in the races and have cleaner races, I think that's already the next step [achieved]. We need to fight for the championship and have consistent results at the front. I think that's exactly what we're looking for,” he states.
Further reflecting on solving the issues that the team faced, Van der Linde shone some praise on the team’s leadership for their approach, saying: “I think we have very good management on our side with Andreas and Vincent that are constantly reviewing how we're doing, how we're progressing throughout the season.
“They’re two of the best in the business and I have no doubt that they have been able to lead a lot of people in the right direction and be brutally honest and say: ‘Look, we definitely expect more from BMW, a brand like BMW is clearly here to win’, and I think that honesty has really helped us forward.”
Van der Linde remains grounded, however, admitting that: “Whether they are [the issues] solved or not, we'll see shortly with the WEC season coming up.”
The 26-year-old, who began a dual-programme last season, competing full-time in both IMSA and WEC, also explained how constant racing action allowed him to quickly get bad results out of his mind.
“I think I'm quite fortunate to be doing a lot of races, so I don't really have much time to dwell on a bad race. That really helps a racing driver reset. The best thing you can do is jump into the car the next weekend and have a good result again. And then everything's forgotten about, right?”
The former DTM champion also said that BMW’s high point of 2025, the 1-2 finish at Road America in IMSA, really “helped to get the mood back up again”.
A highly accomplished GT racer, Van der Linde is entering his third full season as a works BMW driver in prototypes, continuing his progression in the category, saying that tough moments teach him a lot.
“I think you learn a lot more from a year that's below your expectations than you do by winning and being on the podium every race. The last two years have maybe not been perfect from a result point of view, but they really helped me to improve as a driver and realise that not every weekend is going to be great, but it's about how you come back the weekend afterwards.
“That really counts, and yes, maybe it's clichéd and a lot of people say that, but it's so true that you're not really rated by your best weekends, but rather by the ones where you're not performing as you would like, how you really react to that.
"I always try to see the positives. That's just my personality, and the way I grew up is always to try and find the positives in every situation, in order to benefit and be able to perform better on the days that the car is competitive.”
As for 2026, BMW has already introduced its updated M Hybrid V8, which, after testing, raced twice in IMSA up until the time of writing. A podium on the car’s debut in the Daytona 24 Hours, followed up by a fifth-place finish in Sebring, both achieved by the No.24 car driven by Van der Linde among others, are its two best results thus far.
The stated aims for the upgrades were driveability and consistency for the drivers. Asked about whether the car feels genuinely improved, Van der Linde admitted:
“Yes and no. To answer your question clearly, I think performance in terms of raceability has definitely been brought. The aero wash is definitely improved, and that's something we struggled with last year in the races, which is why we were quite strong in qualifying but struggled a bit more in the races.
“There are definitely some weaknesses that we've explored as well over the last few months, but I think the advantages outweigh them by far.
“BMW started 2025 in IMSA with back-to-back pole positions with Dries Vanthoor, but this season, in comparison, the best result in qualifying is eighth. So at the moment, we're trying to minimise and iron them [the weaknesses] out, to get the car to be a bit more reactive in qualifying and bring back that performance we’ve lost.
"But in the races, we’re very happy with the steps we made. We're struggling a bit more in qualifying this year, and our races are a bit better, so that's the trend. We need to kind of figure out why that is,” claims Van der Linde.
The team’s driver line-ups have remained unchanged for 2026, and when asked about the group, Sheldon offered a confident assessment, saying: “I don't want to sound arrogant or anything, but I think we have one of the best line-ups on the grid. I'm very proud to be one of the six driving for BMW in WEC and one of the four driving in IMSA.
“We have drivers that came from Formula One (Kevin Magnussen), drivers that have won two and three DTM titles (Marco Wittmann and Rast). Every driver has had a massive success in his career. Either they won a championship or some big races, or been in Formula One or DTM. It's such a good line-up in terms of experience but also in terms of raw speed, and I think the balance between having young guys and older guys is really good at the moment.”
Van der Linde also praised Magnussen’s impact on the team since arriving, after being let go by Haas: “I think having Kevin in the team is super helpful. He's obviously experienced and seen a lot in his career. So I think he's definitely bringing a lot of value to the development of the car.
“Coming fresh from Formula One and bringing all his know-how of what they did at Haas and trying to put that to work in BMW has been very positive. He's not only a fast racing driver, he's actually also very clever off the track, which sometimes is always hard to see from the outside, but he's very analytical and something that René (Rast) also has.
"Two very experienced guys that have been in the sport for long enough to know what's needed and what's not in a programme like this.”
Van der Linde himself remains a team-mate of Rast and also Frijns for a third straight season. Asked about how important continuity is for him, he was straightforward:
“Super good. We know each other pretty well already. We spend a lot of time together in WEC, and we know how each one likes to work. And I think that's the most important thing when you share a car with two team-mates for three years, as you know exactly what maybe pisses the one guy off and what helps the other guys to perform a bit better.
“Also, the good thing between us three is that the car that we need is very similar. So the balance and the way the car should behave is very close to what our driving style needs. I think this is always the most difficult part. Finding three drivers that really suit well to their car.
“We also just get along super well off the track, which I think is often underrated and really adds to the performance as well. We can laugh about things away from the racetrack, or we can have a beer every now and then, which is also nice.”
A big change that BMW made for 2026 is assigning Team WRT with the running of its IMSA operation, ending a 17-year partnership with Team RLL. That means WRT is now responsible for both of the major endurance championships.
Asked about that change, Van der Linde views it in a positive light: “I only see it as a positive. I think the feedback from one team to the other, from America to Europe, is even more transparent than it was in the past. It's more clear because it's the same team. It's just natural for it to happen like that. The management and technical director are also the same on both programmes.
“They’re trying to bring in the same processes, the same way that we debrief. Everything is the same from America to Europe, which also helps the driver adapt a lot quicker on the race weekend, so we can hit the ground running with engineers.
“We know everyone in the team. We know how they work, and sometimes last year it took quite a bit of time to adjust back and forth, because the way of working was a bit different. So, yeah, I think it's only going to be an advantage for us.
"I think everything that we learn in WEC is going to be directly transferred to IMSA and vice versa, and the transparency of both coming together is really important for us to make that next step now and try to win races.”
Van der Linde also dismissed any notion of overextension for Team WRT, claiming: “I have no worries. If you look at teams like Penske, they're doing NASCAR, IndyCar, they're doing a lot further than what we're doing. So I think it's obviously a big challenge to expand to another 100 people or whatever it is on the IMSA side, but I think Vincent knows exactly what to do there.
“I think he's got a lot of experience to make sure that the guys are not overloaded, they have what they need. He wouldn't do it if it didn't benefit the WEC side as well, so I'm pretty sure that was the thinking behind it.”
Finally, when questioned about the target goals for 2026, he stated: “That's the one that everyone wants to know. I would love to say that we want to try and fight for the championship in WEC again. I think that was the goal last year, but we came up quite short.
“So that's clearly the goal for both championships: to win. Le Mans is also one that we want to be up there for, but I would say that's more realistic to aim for a podium. I think a lot of cars are built for that race, whereas ours is probably better over a whole season. So I would say winning the world championship and getting on the podium in Le Mans are the two main ones, and being the best LMDh manufacturer for me personally.”
Quizzed about a more modest target of a maiden win, with BMW one of the few remaining manufacturers without one, he said:
“Yeah, I think so. There's no reason why we can't be performing at our best level. I think we've proved that we have the potential to be there. We just need to consistently bring results together. If we were to enter our third season in WEC without any ambition to try and win races or championships, then we're obviously in the wrong place.
"So I think we're all aligned there. We want to win races and championships. Whether it happens or not, obviously I cannot tell you yet, but I'm pretty sure that we're on a good way.”
The WEC season opener takes place in Imola from 17th to 19th April 2026, where BMW secured its only podium last year, although scheduling conflicts mean Van der Linde will not be in action for the race.
He will instead focus his efforts on the third round of the IMSA championship in Long Beach, leaving BMW’s early-season competitiveness to be measured in his absence.
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