Multiple race-winners Ricardo van der Ende and Benjamin Lessennes will be aiming for this year’s GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing Club title after confirming their return to the grid with the L’Espace Bienvenue BMW team.
The pair will tackle their second full GT4 Europe campaign together this year at the wheel of BMW’s new-for-2025 M4 GT4 Evo, and will have all eyes on improving on their third-place finish in the Silver points last year.
Dutchman van der Ende and Belgian Lessennes made their GT4 Europe debut together at Spa-Francorchamps in 2023, becoming race winners on their first weekend. That led to a full championship challenge last year, with the duo winning again at Misano. Two further podium finishes and a strong final weekend in Jeddah helped them secure third place in the championship points.
The drivers have a long history of success together, becoming FFSA GT4 France champions in 2020 and then also finishing second overall in that series in both 2022 and 2023. Long-time BMW racer van der Ende boasts multiple GT4 titles, including the 2017 GT4 Europe crown.
Equipped with the latest-spec M4 GT4 Evo, the pair will be hunting more wins from the very start of the season. It also marks the first official entry of the new BMW M4 GT4 Evo into the championship. The car will run in a version of BMW’s inception livery, which was used to launch the new Evo.
L’Espace Bienvenue is also planning to increase its presence in the paddock this season, with the team capable of running up to three of the new M4s.
L’Espace Bienvenue team owner André Grammatico says: “We finished our first complete season in GT4 Europe third in the championship, which is a great achievement considering we were discovering most of the tracks. Thanks to this experience and with the abilities of the new M4 GT4 EVO, we are aiming to build on our strong results and target an even better championship result in 2025.
“This will be the sixth season that Ricardo and Benjamin will share a car at L’Espace Bienvenue, and we are extremely proud of this record. We are also excited about the possibility of expanding the team and welcoming new talents with our other two cars, which are still available for potential new drivers.”
Drivers interested in joining the team can see more information here.
