Full throttle: Andreas Roos

On paper, Andreas Roos should be a pharmacist.

Growing up in Germany, many of his childhood memories were formed inside the pharmacies his parents ran. Alongside his mother and father, his grandfather – even his sister – have found their vocation as pharmacists.

As Roos recalls to The CEO Magazine, however, all he was interested in were cars and racing, including go-karting.

"I was going to follow my family, but at the last minute decided to study mechanical engineering," he reveals. "I decided my goal was to work in motorsport."

Roos already knew people in the milieu thanks to go-karting and was soon introduced to the team of hometown hero, former F1 driver Keijo Erik ‘Keke’ Rosberg, the father of 2016 World Champion, Nico. He started working for Team Rosberg while he was still studying.

"At the beginning, I was attending races because I was just so happy to be there," he says. "I wasn’t earning a salary; I was just cleaning tires and cars."

Soon, however, he was an integral part of the race team, undertaking everything from mechanical repairs to data and race engineering. After nearly six years with Team Rosberg, he was ready to take the next step in his career by joining Audi Sport. In his decade there, he held titles such as Head of Track Engineering, Head of Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) and Project Manager Factory Racing.

It’s this vast, two decades’ worth of experience that made him the ideal candidate when BMW M Motorsport was searching for a new head in 2022.

The appointment was, for most people in Roos’ circle, a homecoming of sorts.

"Those who know me quite well felt that I was where I belonged," he says.

Roos himself also felt something similar.

"My dad always drove a BMW, and I was always passionate about BMW cars," he says.

Elite level

Roos joined BMW at a watershed moment in the division’s 50-year history. The BMW M4 GT3 had just been launched, heralding a significant evolution in BMW’s Gran Turismo (GT) racing lineup. Success was immediate: the car won the DTM championship in 2022.

The following year, the car won the 24 Hours of Spa, a prestigious endurance event in Belgium, further affirming the car’s competitiveness. But the bigger topic, he says, was BMW’s return to top-level endurance racing with its Le Mans Daytona hybrid (LMDh) program after an absence of 25 years in the BMW M Hybrid V8 (its last major foray in the category was in 1999, with victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in the prototype V12 LMR).

Roos and his colleagues rounded out 2023 having entered the M Hybrid 8 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2023, its first step in North America. By 2024, BMW had entered the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and had earned a place on the track at Le Mans.

A fairy-tale victory – 25 years after the last – wasn’t to be.

"I always say it’s difficult in a competition like this, when you have so many big brands, so many big teams, they all know how to develop cars and win races," Roos says. "When you have to catch up, your step always has to be bigger than your competitors.

"But we showcased what the car can do and our speeds."

Plus, the second half of the season was full of promise: a double victory in Indianapolis in IMSA and a Podium in Fuji, Japan in the WEC.

"We managed to catch up quite well," he says. "There’s still a way to go, and everybody is motivated and pushing to get there. But it’s definitely tough."

Road-to-race relevance

Roos knows it has been quite a busy few years for BMW M, yet the pace is showing no sign of slowing down: next year, the BMW M2 Racing, an entry-level racing car, launches, ready for customers’ hands.

The car, he says, rounds out a BMW Racing pyramid. At the mid-level, there’s the BMW M4 GT4, used in series like the GT4 Europe and SRO America, followed by the BMW M4 GT3 at the upper mid-level. At the top, the BMW M Hybrid V8.

Roos knows that BMW M Motorsport is not just about racing for glory; it also serves as both a marketing and a development tool for BMW.

"BMW is very open to technology," he says. "I would say we are lucky because it helps us explore the range of possibilities of what we can do."

For instance, the GT racing cars are based on the BMW M4 road car platform, with safety upgrades and tuning for racing. An exchange of knowledge and development, from suspension tuning to powertrain innovations, aerodynamics and software and data handling, passes between the road and racing teams.

"It’s not always one-to-one, of course, but there is a constant exchange, and we always have to be close to what we do on the road car side," he says.

True team effort

Roos believes motorsport is one of the greatest team sports.

"It’s a professional team effort. I have never seen a driver in this world who prepares his car or who gets out at the pit stop and changes his tires," he says with a smile.

He also knows how important partners are in the ecosystem, such as Shell Deutschland, PUMA, AccuSim, Champion Ignition and Schaeffler.

In BMW M Motorsport, Roos also knows that he has joined one of the finest teams in the business.

"We are driven by passion and competitiveness, both in racing and in road car development," he says, adding that everyone is united by the goal to build the best cars that showcase BMW’s capabilities.

"This is our passion, our goal and what we are living and working on. Everybody has this dream to win the big races to showcase what we can do – and then have this transfer from the racetrack to the road."