Risi Competizione aiming for Le Mans return, no further IMSA plans for 2019

Risi #62 Ferrari

Risi Competizione looks to race at Le Mans for the first time in 2017. The team has filed an entry for the GTE Pro field and hopes to be on the grid for the closing round of the World Endurance Championship Super Season in June.

"We have put in an entry as ourselves and want to go back. We feel there is a level-playing field at Le Mans," team owner Giuseppe Risi told Motorsport.com.

The Houston-based team has a storied history at the Circuit de La Sarthe winning LMP1 in 1999 and claiming top honors in GT2 in both 2008 and 2009. Risi last ran under its own name in 2017, before competing under the Keating Motorsports banner in GTE Am last year.

The fate of a Risi Le Mans entry will likely become clear in March, when the race-organizing Automobile Club de l'Ouest reveals the second phase of the entry list for the French endurance classic.

Off the back of a second place finish in GT Le Mans at the Rolex 24 at Daytona last week, the team also said it has no further plans for the remaining rounds of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship. This stems from the belief that the current Balance of Performance regulations render the 488 GTE uncompetitive against the two-car factory entries from Porsche, Ford, Corvette and BMW. This concern was raised by both engineer Rick Meyer and Ferrari factory driver James Calado.

Meanwhile Autosport reports BMW could quit the World Endurance Championship after just a single season in the series.

BMW may quit WEC after one year

The manufacturer joined the WEC's GTE Pro class at the start of 2018 with its new M8 GTE, which is also competing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship.

While the car has enjoyed success in IMSA, and took GT Le Mans class victory in the 2019 Daytona 24 Hours, BMW sits last in the WEC GTE Pro manufacturers' standings with just a sole podium scored between the two MTEK-run M8s in five races.

But Marquardt told Autosport in Bathurst this weekend that a final decision on the future of the GTE program would not be made until after the current WEC campaign concludes at Le Mans in June.

"There are still a lot of things we have to look in to in WEC, we definitely haven't extracted the maximum performance from our package," he said.

"That's what we'll focus on with the remaining races. "Once we've wrapped up everything, that's when we're going to sit down and assess and see where we go in the future.

"For us, the fortunate situation we have that every year with all of the series is that we do the last race and then sit together and decide how we go forward.

"We don't have to do any development or anything. The car is there, the team is there, so it's easy for us."

There has been reports suggesting BMW could be interested in stepping up to IMSA's top DPi division, possibly as soon as 2020.

Marquardt added that the M8 GTE program in IMSA is not firmed up beyond 2019. He said: "We'll race until Petit Le Mans [in October] and then sit down [to decide] afterwards."