2025 SEASON REVIEW: ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL YEAR AND TWO NEW HOME LOCATIONS
Another year is almost gone! At a fast pace and with its harvest of achievements and emotions, W Racing Team has lived an intense 2025, which included moving into new, state-of-the-art premises in Bierset and opening a second operation in Kannapolis, North Carolina, ahead of its new racing programme in North America, which will officially take off as soon as 2026 starts.
These, together with further expansion of the manufacturing activity, are key corporate developments for our company, which has continued to be extremely successful on the racing circuits around the world.
Six new titles in SRO-promoted competitions have been added to the squad’s collection, with the double, Teams’ and Drivers’, overall titles in the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the Drivers’ crown in the Intercontinental GT Challenge standing out.
In the FIA WEC, BMW M Team WRT has continued to make steady progress in the Hypercar class, conquering podium finishes in the LMGT3 class also.
RACING ACTIVITIES
Hypercar Racing
For its second full season in the highly competitive FIA World Endurance Championship, BMW M Team WRT managed to make further progress and position the BMW M Hybrid V8 consistently among the top performers, although this wasn’t always reflected in the results. The highlights were the podium conquered by car #20 of Robin Frijns, Rene Rast and Sheldon van der Linde, taking second place in Imola, while car #15 achieved fourth position in season opener at Qatar with Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor.
The team approaches with even greater determination the 2026 season, which will see the launch of the updated BMW M Hybrid V8 including updates to improve aerodynamics. 2026 will also see the launch of Team WRT’s parallel Hypercar programme in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the United States.
GT3 Racing
Team WRT was present in the FIA WEC also in the no less competitive LMGT3 category with two BMW M4 GT3 EVOs, which struggled again with the regulation arithmetic in top speed capping. Thanks to perfect race execution and great strategies, the cars were still able to fight for podium finishes, clinching second twice, at Imola and Austin, with Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi and Kelvin van der Linde, and third once, at Fuji, with Timur Boguslavskiy, Augusto Farfus and Yasser Shahin.
In the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, Team WRT proved again to be among the most consistently successful. This year it netted both top honours, the overall Teams’ and Drivers’ titles, the latter going to Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts. The duo and Team WRT double their success with the respective titles in the Sprint Cup, to which adds the Teams’ title in the Gold Cup overall ranking, where Al Faisal Al Zubair and Jens Klingmann finished Vice Champions.
In the Endurance Cup, there were runner-up honours for WRT in the Teams Cup in both the Overall and Gold rankings, and in the Gold Cup Drivers' standings for Al Zubair, Klingmann and Ben Tuck. Last but not least, Ugo de Wilde, Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts took third in the Endurance cup as well as a victory at the season-opener in Paul Ricard. Once again, the great mechanics of Team WRT won the Pitstop Challenge.
The Intercontinental GT Challenge continued to yield success, as Kelvin van der Linde succeeded Charles Weerts as the series champion, thanks to his four successes, three with Team WRT. At the Bathurst 12 Hour, the South African shared the glory with his brother Sheldon and Augusto Farfus, in front of the #46 sister car, at the Suzuka 1000 km with Raffaele Marciello and Charles Weerts, and at the Indianapolis 8 Hour with Weerts and Valentino Rossi. The fourth came at the Nürburgring 24H with ROWE Racing.
Elsewhere and earlier in the year, Team WRT also won the Abu Dhabi 6 Hours, with Timur Boguslavskiy, Yasser Shahin and Charles Weerts, and the Dubai 24 Hours, with Al Faisal Al Zubair, Dan Harper, Max Hesse, Darren Leung and Ben Tuck.
CAR MANUFACTURING ACTIVITY
The manufacturing and chassis-building department, and its staff of over 40 people, is probably the one having faced the greatest logistical challenge set by relocating all operations into the new Bierset premises. This did not hinder the further expansion of the business, whose turnover grew up to 12 million euros.
Once again, slightly over a hundred roll-cages and chassis were built, with 80 of those being painted in-house. The production run included WRC2 cars for Hyundai and Citroën, TCR cars for Hyundai, GT4 cars for Toyota (25) and Fun Cup cars (12). WRT continued the technical following of Fun Cup cars, with the start of a fruitful cooperation with ORECA on the engine side, and preparation work ahead of the transition towards the EVO 4 car production.
New developments also include the start of the Minotor project, a hybrid T3U vehicle designed for rally-raid competition, including the Dakar Rally, with the first four chassis built this year ahead of a larger production run next year.
ESG ACTIVITIES
ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) continues to be a top priority for W Racing Team. This philosophy is perfectly reflected in the new headquarters of the company, in Bierset near Liège. The new 20,475-sqm building, which reunites all racing and manufacturing activities previously scattered over five different locations, is state-of-the-art in terms of sustainability standards: 49% of the energy needs are eolic, produced in-house by the Weerts Group, while the new facility is able to store up to 60,000 m3 of rainwater, and the waste management plan foresees a recycling rate of 95%. Other features include high-tech insulation, LED lighting with smart controls, and the use of low-impact materials. The focus has also been put on workforce wellbeing, with the building fitted with ergonomic working spaces and offering a fitness centre, EV recharging stations and healthy fresh food catering by TOC. An application for the prestigious BREEAM certification is underway, and plans are in place to implement solar panels that will enable the site to operate on 75% green energy by 2026.
Team WRT continues also its commitment to the Drive Fast, Act Faster initiative, which this year allowed to offset 8,431 tonnes of CO2 and protect 76,48 ha of rainforest in South America.
As part of their ‘We aRe uniTed’ concept, Team WRT supported twice the FIA Girls on Track initiative by organising activities at the track. They also invited young karting driver, Gabin Léger, to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and offered him a customised helmet, painted on-site by Belgian artist, PIROEH. Next to these two projects, the Belgian squad, together with their drivers Augusto Farfus and Timur Boguslavskiy, raised 15,000 euros for Brazilian communities.
Vincent VOSSE, co-CEO of W Racing Team: “Our 16th season has come to a close, and what a season it was! It has once again been exceptional, with six titles, and several major victories at legendary races such as Bathurst, Suzuka, and Indianapolis. Alongside the challenges on the racetracks and in the production facilities, this year we had to tackle two other defying challenges. The first was the construction of our new building in Bierset, a transformative project that now allows us to bring all our activities together under one roof. This key milestone has accompanied the impressive growth of our manufacturing department, demonstrating once again that excellence at WRT is not limited to racing. The second challenge, since the end of the summer, has been the launch of a brand-new program, IMSA, and the establishment of a new team in the United States, a large-scale project completed within a particularly tight timeframe! I want to express a huge thank you to everyone involved in these various projects. Their commitment, responsiveness, and tireless work have been invaluable and essential to achieving all goals. I'm now eager to start this new season, which promises to be very busy and demanding, but above all, extremely exciting!”
Kathleen SCHURMANS, co-CEO of W Racing Team: “What we achieved in 2025 is exceptional, because of the scale of the challenges, and how we did it. We managed to bring five work locations together into one, smoothly and effectively. We opened WRT USA in just a few months and welcomed 30 colleagues on board, seamlessly. We delivered more than ever for our philanthropic projects, supporting vulnerable children not only financially, but with heart, presence, and personal commitment from our people. Besides that, we did what we have always done: we won races, we grew, and we moved forward together, from 140 to almost 180 people. This moment of looking back is unique: every single person made a difference. All should be deeply proud of their personal contribution, because our success belongs to all of them. We aRe a Team!”
2025 RACING ACHIEVEMENTS
CHAMPION of the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) - Drivers' overall ranking (Kelvin van der Linde)
WINNER of the Indianapolis 8 hour (K. vdLinde / Ch. Weerts / V. Rossi)
CHAMPION of the GT World Challenge Europe - Drivers' overall ranking (K. vdLinde / Ch. Weerts)
CHAMPION of the GT World Challenge Europe - Teams' overall ranking
2nd in the GT World Challenge Europe - Endurance Cup Teams' ranking
2nd in the GT World Challenge Europe - Gold drivers' overall ranking (F. Al Zubair / J. Klingmann)
2nd in the GT World Challenge Europe - Endurance Cup Gold Teams' ranking
2nd in the GT World Challenge Europe - Endurance Cup Gold Drivers' ranking (F. Al Zubair /J. Klingmann / B. Tuck)
3rd in the GT World Challenge Europe - Endurance Cup Drivers' ranking (U. de Wilde / K. vdLinde / Ch. Weerts)
CHAMPION of the GT World Challenge Europe - Teams' overall Gold ranking
CHAMPION of the GT World Challenge Europe - Sprint Cup Drivers' ranking (K. vdLinde / Ch. Weerts)
CHAMPION of the GT World Challenge Europe - Sprint Cup Teams' ranking
WINNER of the GT World Challenge Europe Pitstop Challenge
WINNER of the Suzuka 1000 Km (R. Marciello / K. vdLinde / Ch. Weerts)
WINNER of the Bathurst 12H (A. Farfus / K. van der Linde / S. van der Linde)
2nd in the Bathurst 12H (R. Marciello / V. Rossi / C. Weerts)
WINNER of the Abu Dhabi 6H (T. Boguslavskiy / Y. Shahin / C. Weerts)
WINNER of the Dubai 24H (F. Al Zubair / D. Harper / M. Hesse / D. Leung / B. Tuck)
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