MOTORSPORT: GTs and Le Mans BMW’s priority

BMW this week announced a “strategic realignment” of its motorsport activities, which it already claimed to be “virtually unique in terms of scope and diversity”. The German manufacturer is committing heavily to GT racing, is warming to Formula E electric racing, will step up its support for MINI in the Dakar Rally and continue in the DTM – the German Touring Car Championship.

BMW’s focus on GT racing will take it into the World Endurance Championship for the first time, and back to the 24 Hours of Le Mans (pictured) in which it has not competed since 2011.

It will launch a full assault on the WEC – including Le Mans – in the GTE Pro class from 2018 with an as-yet unnamed replacement for the M6 GT LM that has raced in North America, where it has had special dispensation from organisers and rivals to run in the GT Le Mans class of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) series.

BMW will also will introduce a new M4 racer for the GT4 category.

Options for the M6 replacement include an M-brand car based on the common chassis platform shared by the 5, 6, and 7 Series cars and the forthcoming Z5, which replaces the Z4 and is being co-developed with Toyota.

“Starting with the 2018 season, we want to further expand our activities in GT racing and compete in the WEC, as well as the IMSA Sports Car Championship [in North America with the Rahal organisation],” BMW Motorsport boss Jens Marquardt said.

“The way the WEC has developed so well makes us confident that there is a big future for GT racing,” he said.

Marquardt said the health of GT racing provided the “motivation behind our further expansion in the customer racing sector”.

“Our range is already spearheaded by a successful representative in the form of the BMW M6 GT3. As of 2018 we will also be excellently represented by the BMW M4 GT4 in the GT4 class, which is experiencing something of a boom.”

In further evidence of the GT racing boom, Ford has extended its two-year program that began this year (and included a Le Mans class victory on the 50th anniversary of its first outright success there) until at least 2019, with the possibility of customer cars from 2018 in WEC and IMSA.

And in further good news for the Bathurst 12-Hour, Miedecke Stone Motorsport – the team of Port Macquarie veteran racer Andrew Miedecke and New Zealand engineer Matt Stone – will bring Aston Martin back to the event on the first weekend of next February with a pair of Vantage GT3s in the outright class and a Vantage GT4 in class C.

Formula E connection with America’s Andrettis
On the Formula E front, BMW has signed a two-year agreement with America’s Andretti team as a “co-operation partner” for the third season of the electric open-wheeler series starting in Hong Kong in 10 days.

It is looking at a factory team from the fifth season in 2018-19, when competitors should be running full race distances without car swaps mid-distance (because of existing battery limitations).

McLaren Applied Technologies this week won the right to supply the Formula E batteries from that season, ahead of existing supplier Williams Advanced Engineering and perhaps Porsche and Renault/Red Bull Technologies.

BMW has said previously that the mid-race car swaps send the wrong message about electric vehicles.

“The co-operation with Andretti Formula E will primarily focus on familiarising ourselves with the procedures and processes of this innovative series, and on intensifying our knowledge,” Marquardt said.

“A works involvement is then conceivable as of the series’ fifth season. The premise for all these steps is the further positive development of the series, which includes increasing the capacity of the batteries.”

BMW is believed to be working with Andretti already on its new ATEC-02 electric powertrain that will make its debut in Hong Kong on October 9.

BMW board member Klaus Frolich said greater involvement in Formula E made sense for the company.

“Electric mobility will continue to grow in importance,” Frolich said.

“In the past 10 years we have established a leading position in the automobile industry in this field with BMW i.

“Through our partnership with Andretti in the Formula E Championship we will now additionally see a close interaction between motor racing and production development in our company, from which both departments will benefit.”

Ramping up Dakar rivalry with Peugeot
Stung by Peugeot’s success with its two-wheel-drive 2008 DKR in this year’s Dakar Rally, BMW is determined to see its MINI brand (which won the marathon the previous four years) back on top in January.

Marquardt pledged that BMW would “ramp up” its support of the X-Raid team that fields the MINIs in the world’s toughest motor race over two weeks in South America (since its move almost a decade ago from Europe and Africa).

X-Raid chief Sven Quandt said the increased co-operation with BMW was “very, very good news for us”.

“It’s also really important that this is not something for one year – it’s for longer than that. And there’s no question that we are in this to be winning,” Quandt said.

“We will have lots of technical changes to the car for Dakar. And these won't be small changes – we have a lot of work to the car coming. But I confirm, we will race in Dakar in January with a four-wheel drive car. We go to Dakar as the hunters rather than the hunted and I’m happy with this situation.

Quandt said he felt Peugeot had exploited the Dakar regulations.

“This regulation for running a two-wheel drive car was made for the privateer, but Peugeot found the regulation, took this loophole and used it to make a two-wheel drive car,” he said.

“As soon as I heard about this project, I warned the FIA [Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, world governing body of motorsport]. I knew what would happen. I knew what the performance would be like. This was a mistake of the regulation.

“The power from the Peugeot will be brought down slightly with a 38mm restrictor, but still the balance of power remains [with Peugeot].

“I was surprised about the Peugeot this year. It was really good on the rally roads, but off-road I was more surprised that it was not ‘crazy good’ – that is where it should have been faster.”

Peugeot will debut its all-new 3008 DKR in next week’s 1885km Rally of Morocco, with Spanish great Carlos Sainz (world rally champion and Dakar winner) at the wheel of one of its two entries as ‘Mr Dakar’, French 12-time winner (on two and four wheels) Stephane Peterhansel, looks on.

Next year’s Rally Oz dateless but not desperate
Rally Australia, the concluding round of this year’s World Rally Championship (WRC), is now just seven weeks away on November 17-20 – and event chairman Ben Rainsford says it will be the closing round again next season.

However, the 2017 WRC calendar announced after this week’s World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) meeting in Paris only listed dates for the seven events in the first half of next year.

The uncertainty over the rest of the calendar is the result of the cancellation of what was to have been the new round in China this month (September).

Finland, Germany , Spain, Britain and Australia have been assured of places in next year’s championship, but without dates, while two more events will be added. Poland, China and Turkey are among the possibilities.

Rally Oz organiser hopes next year’s Coffs Harbour event will be on November 16-19.

“We’re delighted the WRC has retained Rally Australia for 2017. This will be our 25th WRC event and the sixth on the Coffs Coast,” Rainsford said.

However, New Zealand continues to lobby hard for a return to the WRC beyond next year.

Some of the proceeds from an NZ Legends of Speed dinner in Auckland on November 25 will go towards the ‘Bring Back WRC New Zealand’ campaign.

FIA rally director Jarmo Hanonen said this week there was excess demand in the Asia-Pacific region for WRC events and he talked again of rotations.

“We have New Zealand, Japan, China, Malaysia, Korea and Australia [as continual possibilities], so we need rotation,” Hanonen was quoted saying.

“We cannot host this many rallies in the Asia-Pacific. I know it [rotation] is not popular, and it won’t be done on a year-by-year basis -- that can’t work -- but we are investigating this.”

The WMSC made no decision on the controversy over the running order of the top competitors in the WRC.

Mercedes close to third F1 constructors’ title
While the Formula 1 drivers’ championship is likely to go to the wire, Mercedes could clinch its third straight constructors’ championship of the V6 hybrid era in Malaysia this weekend.

Mercedes, winner of all but one of the 15 grands prix so far this season, already leads Red Bull Racing by 222 points, with a maximum 215 points available from the five races after Sunday’s round at Sepang.

Nico Rosberg is only eight points ahead of Mercedes teammate and triple world champion Lewis Hamilton in the driver standings. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo is a distant third.

The Malaysian race has been moved to October from its traditional timeslot soon after Melbourne’s season-opener and Sepang has been resurfaced and the gradient of some corners changed, making the track smoother – but there is always the prospect of rain at this round.

Sebastian Vettel won for Ferrari in Malaysia and nearby Singapore last year, but Mercedes has already atoned for that mysterious poor performance in Singapore with Rosberg’s eighth victory of this season there two weeks ago, narrowly ahead of Ricciardo with Hamilton third.

Ricciardo has said that the resurfacing “could be interesting for the tyre life”.

Ferarri is third in this year’s constructors’ championship, 15 points behind Red Bull, but does not look like winning a race this season as its attentions have turned to next year’s car.

The Australian GP in Melbourne is scheduled to be the first race again next season on March 26 in the sport’s second 21-round calendar.