What they said... after Sebring 12H

Andreas Roos (Head of BMW M Motorsport): “It’s fantastic that we were able to score our maiden podium with the new BMW M Hybrid V8 in only its second race. In combination with the one-two finish of our BMW M4 GT3 teams in the GTD class, this was an almost perfect outcome of a 12-hour race that ended in chaotic fashion. We appeared clearly stronger with our two BMW M Hybrid V8 cars than at the Daytona season opener. Thanks to the hard work in Munich and at BMW M Team RLL in Indianapolis, we are gradually getting closer to the performance level that we want to achieve. Therefore, this second place scored by our #25 car is a great motivation for us to continue in the same fashion in the coming weeks and months. Congratulations to the winning Cadillac team. The retirement of our second car was unfortunate. There was a problem with the cooling system. In the GTD class, our customer teams Paul Miller Racing and Turner Motorsport were able to celebrate an amazing one-two finish – thanks to great strategies and flawless performances from their drivers. On Thursday, Turner Motorsport had claimed the maiden win in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge for the new BMW M4 GT4, also securing a one-two. Congrats to Will Turner and his squad. Now we are fired up for the upcoming races of the 2023 IMSA season.”  

Nick Tandy (Porsche 963 #6): "I think the worst part for me is you see the heartbreak on everybody’s face in the team you know. If we didn’t care so much about the result it wouldn’t mean anything so to see so much passion and commitment in everyone in this team to fight for 11 hours and 50 minutes through all the setbacks we’ve had all day to get to the front is a true testament to what this team has become. The incident is what it is. These things happen in racing. But I mean overall it’s just heartbreaking to know that we had a chance, but we’ll have other chances that’s for sure. We’ll come back and win one at some point."

Mathieu Jaminet (Porsche 963 #6): “I would like to apologise to the entire Porsche motorsport family and the Porsche Penske Motorsport team for the accident. In the close finale on the pitch-black Sebring track, sadly such incidents can happen sometimes. I wanted to go all-out and take advantage of a small gap – unfortunately, that resulted in a big accident. My teammate Felipe had nothing to do with it but he was thrown out of the race, too. It was just a huge stroke of bad luck. And so, a great race had a terrible end. Still, I’d like to focus on the positives: The team did a fantastic job, the car was very strong in the race.”

Antonio Garcia (Corvette C8.R) : “I’m really disappointed with the finish, but it has nothing to do with the team. They did a great job all weekend with the car, our strategy and helping to keep us in the race when things weren’t looking so good. We kept waiting for a long time for a yellow to get back with the main GTD PRO group, and it finally came our way not long after I got in. I felt like we were in the best shape of all with about an hour to go before all the chaos broke out. I really don’t know what to say. All I know is that I was spun twice and it ruined our race and our car. I understand that this is an important race but there is no call for what happened late. It was careless and reckless driving by a lot of guys who should know better. I don’t know if we would have won, but I do know that we had that chance taken from us. I’m not happy.”

Chris Mitchum (Cadillac) : "Everybody says you never quit, but all the way through the end there was belief. We had our issues, we had a good car all weekend and you have to be there at the end and we were. I could not be more proud to get Cadillac's first GTP win in IMSA. This one was wild, but that’s why you go endurance racing. We worked really hard to be in the position we were at the end. It wasn’t an easy race for us. You can’t choose how you win but we deserve that in the long ways.”