Robin Frijns says BMW "had to win" the Spa World Endurance Championship race after an unusual strategic choice handed the German manufacturer a big opportunity.

At Spa-Francorchamps, BMW opted for a very different strategy compared to the other Hypercar teams. The #20 M Hybrid V8 of Rene Rast, Sheldon van der Linde and Frijns took on significantly less fuel during its first pitstop, allowing for a shorter stop and enabling the car to move into the lead.

Once in clean air, the BMW proved extremely strong. Lap after lap, Rast and Van der Linde increased the gap to the rest of the field, leaving Frijns with the task of bringing the BMW home for victory.

That still proved challenging thanks to a chaotic final two hours featuring incidents and safety cars. But partly thanks to Kevin Magnussen's defensive driving in the sister car, the #20 BMW managed to secure the win - the first for the German manufacturer in the Hypercar class.

In an interview with Motorsport.com, Frijns mainly spoke of “relief” after finally securing BMW’s maiden win in its 18th race in the WEC’s top category.

“It feels really good,” said Frijns. “It was obviously stressful, because we saw, especially once Sheldon got in the car, that the car worked really well in clean air. He was putting in fast laps lap after lap. That’s when we knew this was the race we had to win - or could win.

“So, we absolutely couldn’t make any mistakes. Then you naturally start paying attention to a lot of small details, especially because it’s the first time. Once you’ve won four or five races, it becomes more routine. But there was definitely some pressure on us and on the team. We’ve been here for three years and we hadn’t won a race yet, but now we’ve finally changed that.”

BMW and WRT claimed a 1-2 finish at Spa

Unlocking the potential

BMW’s strong race pace, which ultimately delivered a 1-2, came as a surprise after qualifying. The manufacturer started from 10th and 11th on the grid, with the #15 ahead of the #20, but both cars managed to fight their way to the front.

According to Frijns, the major improvement compared to qualifying was mainly the result of BMW’s hard work on the updated LMDh package, with a particular focus on race performance.

“Last year, we usually had pretty strong qualifying pace and we were up at the front,” Frijns explained. “But in the races we always dropped off a bit. We really focused on making sure we had a good race car. It’s nice if you’re on pole, but if you can’t race properly, it doesn’t mean much.

“We gave up a little bit in qualifying. You could already see that at Imola, but especially here at Spa. After qualifying, you start thinking a little bit: ‘it’s not working’ or ‘the pace isn’t there’. But in the race we saw that it actually was working. We need to sit down in the meeting and understand why it worked so well this time.”

Frijns stressed that BMW had “always” believed there was “potential” at Spa.

“One hundred percent,” added the 34-year-old Dutchman. “Especially with the new package we have. But we haven’t always been able to unlock that potential - that’s something we’re still trying to figure out. Today, we managed to maximise it completely.”

Building a comfortable gap

#20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Rene Rast, Robin Frijns

The goal behind BMW’s alternative strategy was clear: spend as much time as possible in clean air in order to build a gap to the competition.

“It was basically a gamble. It was obviously a risky strategy,” Frijns admitted. “If the safety car had come out at the wrong moment, we would have dropped to the back - we knew that.

“But if you’re running in ninth or tenth place, like we were at the start with Rene, and you do nothing, then you’ll just finish ninth. We simply wanted to try something different and especially the people behind the scenes, together with my old engineer Adam, took responsibility for that call. Credit to Adam.”

During the final stints, Frijns still had to withstand pressure from, among others, the #50 Ferrari, the #7 Toyota and the #007 Aston Martin. The fact that the #15 BMW was running second and could therefore act as a buffer proved to be a small advantage in that battle. Magnussen ensured that none of the rivals could get close to Frijns.

“You build a gap, especially after the first safety car. I had something like 13 or 15 seconds of an advantage,” Frijns pointed out. “You build that margin to feel comfortable and then the safety car comes out again and the whole gap disappears. Then you have to start all over again.

“I thought: I need to create a gap in those first three laps so I can feel comfortable. And I managed to do that. You know traffic is coming. If you then have one bad moment and someone is within one-and-a-half seconds behind you, then you’re in trouble. That’s why I wanted to build a gap and feel a bit more comfortable.”

Thanks to the victory, the #20 BMW now also leads the manufacturers’ championship, while Frijns, Rast and van der Linde sit on top of the drivers’ standings. 

WEC Spa: BMW scores maiden Hypercar win in chaotic finish

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