Eng takes responsibility for Long Beach scrap with Heinrich

Philipp Eng of BMW M Team WRT expressed remorse for the mid-race incidents between himself and Porsche factory driver Laurin Heinrich at the most recent IMSA WeatherTech Championship round on the streets of Long Beach.

“We had a chat immediately afterwards,” Eng related. “We’ve known each other for many years. I don’t know if many guys know, but we actually won the virtual 24 Hours of Nürburgring together on iRacing a few years ago during COVID times. So we have a very good connection and, I mean, we talked about it and we shook it off. It was, I think, two very unfortunate incidents.”

Eng blocked the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 driven by Heinrich down to the wall along Seaside Way, before turning in on Heinrich and getting dumped into the tire barrier at Turn 8 the following lap. Adding to the damage the No. 25 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 sustained in the incidents themselves, the Austrian driver was ruled at fault for the collision and given a 60-second stop-and-hold penalty.

“The first one, I take full blame on myself,” Eng admitted. “I misjudged the situation. I didn’t think at that time that his nose was already between my tail and the wall, so I apologized to him, I apologized to the team, because it was full blame on myself. The penalty I got was fully deserved in general.”

It’s been a season of mixed fortunes for BMW M Team WRT in its full-time IMSA GTP debut. The No. 24 car of Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor started the year with a third place at Daytona, then back-to-back top fives. On the other hand, the No. 25 of Eng and Marco Wittmann hasn’t finished better than eighth in the first three races, 11th out of 11 at Long Beach.

However, Laguna Seca – a circuit where the two M Hybrid V8s finished third and fourth after a pole position last year – brings renewed hope that WRT can get its first IMSA GTP victory.

“I think historically, Laguna has always been one of our stronger tracks. Now obviously, with the Evo kit, it’s difficult to judge where we will be,” Eng said. “Also, the BoP is different, so it’s very difficult to judge right now where we are. But the preparation has been pretty strong back at home base and also here on-site, and this is one of my top-three tracks in the United States.

“In the past, full course yellow has always been quite likely around here. It’s an old-school track where there is not a lot of runoff. It’s quite narrow, we have 32 or 33 cars on track. The competition is high as always in IMSA.”