WRT had a lineup overhaul for GTWC Europe

After getting some experience with the new BMW M4 GT3 Evo, WRT moves to debut the car in another major series, but the GT World Challenge Europe program will go to track with several changes as most lineups were totally replaced for 2025.
 
The most apparent change appears in the associate entry, as the OQ by Oman Racing entry carried by Ahmad Al Harthy moved permanently to the FIA WEC LMGT3 class, being replaced by the Al Manar entry that moved from Getspeed support and Mercedes machinery to the Belgian team. Al Faisal Al Zubair stays as the head of the lineup, while Jens Klingmann joins him both the Sprint Cup and Endurance Cup as part of the change to BMW, with Ben Tuck joining as the third driver for the Endurance Cup in between his FIA WEC duties with Proton Competition and Ford.
 
While the No. 30 car stays in the Silver Cup , it will count with an entirely new lineup as Callan Williams and Sam de Haan departed the team, giving place to Gustav Bergström and Gilles Stadsbader, with Etienne Cheli joining in the Endurance Cup races.
 
Bergström was splitting his duties between sportscar racing and rallycross as he had programs in the Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia and the FIA World Rallycross Championship, but with some World RX and RallyX appearances with KMS being dropped in favor of sportscar racing, he eventually left rallycross aside and stood with the Porsche Cup, moving to GT3 racing in 2024 as he competed in the International GT Open. He is part of a bunch of names that eventually dropped rallycross in favor of other disciplines, like Anton Marklund, Kobe Pauwels, Reinis Nitiss and more recently Magnus Dall.
 
Stadsbader had a lightning change from karting to sportscars, jumping in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe, Italian GT Championship and GTWC Europe since 2023. A Silver Cup podium in the Sprint Cup with Saintéloc Racing and his experience with VSR outside the GTWC qualifies him well for the task this year. Cheli comes with his career being supported by Jacques Villeneuve, and while also needing mileage in a GT3 machine, the FFSA GT4 title and the 4th place in the GT4 European Series are nice additions to his resume.
 
It is kind of strange but the No. 31 BMW will be the only Pro Cup entry from the team, as the No. 46 car from Valentino Rossi took the same way of as Al Harthy’s OQ entry and focused on FIA WEC. LMGT3. Dries Vanthoor also left the No. 31 entry as his focus goes to FIA WEC’s Hypercar class, leaving Charles Weerts with Kelvin van der Linde as his team mate for the Sprint Cup, while for the Endurance Cup the car changes to the traditional No. 32 and receives Ugo de Wilde as the third driver.
 
Kelvin is following the steps of his brother Sheldon as he joined the BMW factory roster this year after serving Audi for multiple seasons, which obviously included WRT among other teams like Phoenix and Abt Sportsline. He comes to the WRT garage as the DTM runner-up finisher, which compensated for his FIA WEC LMGT3 campaign with Akkodis ASP as their Lexus RC F was far from the ideal performance to aim for class wins.
 
Ugo comes from a 2024 spent with Saintéloc Racing and then Imperiale Racing on a more consistent basis, and while he actually passed for all classes except the Pro Cup last year, he spent most of the season in the Bronze Cup, so the leap to the Pro Cup will be a thing that needs adaptation, especially as it is in WRT’s single shot in the class..
 
PHOTO: SRO/JEP