BMW BLOG

Our very close friends over at Skiddmark sat down with BMW’s Motorsport Director, Dr.  Mario Theiseen. When you get an interview with BMW Motorsport boss, the subject range can get very wide and as you will see next, Dr. Theissen doesn’t refrain himself from talking about F1 strategy and the decision to pull out, or the green future of Motorsport, and even hybrid/KERS technologies in future racing.

Formula 1 and the Strategy Shift

If you have watched F1 in the last few years, and been paying attention, you would have seen Mario Theissen. As high stress – if you are not winning – high visibility jobs go, being an F1 Team Principal is right up there with Premiership football managers. So I can’t help thinking that a part of Theissen might have been secretly pleased when the BMW board announced, last July, that the company was pulling out of this branch of the sport at the end of the 2009 season.

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The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona is, like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, an endurance race of man and machine to see who can traverse the longest distance in the alotted time. Many teams have tried and many have failed to survive the grueling conditions of the race. The series, typically dominated by Porsche and GM cars, had an abundance of Bavarians at the 2010 running of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona held in Daytona Beach, Florida.

BMW had a big presence this year in both cars and engines throughout the multiple classes in the field. Dinan-tuned BMW V8’s sitting amidships the the Riley-built chassis and run by both the Chip Ganassi Level 5 teams. Additionally, Turner Motorsport entered an M6 into the GT class to battle it out with the many Porsche GT3’s and two Ferrari F430’s. Corsa PR1 also entered a Pratt & Miller chassis M6 powered by a hefty Dinan-tuned V8. Needless to say, BMW was well represented during the race – and what a race it was.

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Yes, BMW retains its name in the Sauber team (due to FIA regulations), and today, in Valencia, Sauber unveiled their latest monopost: C29. Drivers Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro De la Rosa unveiled Sauber’s 2010 Formula One car and the team remains confident for the upcoming season despite the a lower budget and reduction in manpower.

The C29 monopost uses Ferrari engines and gearbox, at some levels similar to the ones used by the “Italian scuderia”. One distinctive feature of the C29 is the highly raised nose and also extremely long undercut at the transition from chassis into underbody. All these changes are expected to play an important role in the aerodynamic numbers.

Willy Rampf, Technical Director at BMW Sauber, explains that new regulations banning refueling during races and a reduced width for the front tires, have had a direct impact on the car’s new design.

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The news sweeping throughout the BMW racing world is that Turner Motorsport has expanded into the GT class of the Rolex / Grand-Am Sports Car Series. They are entering a BMW M6 to compete in 2010 season, starting with the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. Turner Motorsport brings with them championship winning experience, a race-proven crew, and a “Dream Team” driver line-up that means business.

In what appears to be a “perfect storm,” the most successful BMW race team in North America has paired the new BMW M6 and the best BMW drivers in the business to compete in the prestigious 48th annual Rolex 24 at Daytona, a grueling 24-hour survival of the fittest, taking place at Daytona International Speedway on January 30 and 31. Their driver line-up includes veteran BMW factory drivers Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand, who surprised many competitors with their fast pace while driving the BMW M3 GT2 in the American Le Mans Series last year. They will be joined by fellow road-racing legend and NASCAR driver Boris Said, as well as rookie sensation Paul Dalla Lana who had an impressive 2009 season driving the Turner Motorsport E90 328i.

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A few months back, BMW decided that in 2011, it will run with a turbocharged four-cylinder engines in both the World Rally Championship (WRC) and World Touring Car Championship (WTCC). The 1.6 liter turbocharged engine could make things more profitable for BMW if they decide to run in other FIA racing series since the engine is one of the costliest components in these cars.

In an recent interview with Motorsport-Total, BMW Motorsport director, Mario Theissen, confirmed that BMW will develop a similar engine in the in the coming year. The engine could be fitted into the BMW 320si and it could be used beyond the 2011 racing championships.

Another topic that came up in the interview was around the BMW Z4 GT3 reported by us yesterday. The 480 horsepower car, powered by the M3’s V8 engine, comes out in 2010. The 298,000 euros Z4 GT3 will be available for private racing teams.

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Having bid farewell to Formula One, BMW will intensify its involvement in GT and touring car racing in the forthcoming year. The company released details of its 2010 motorsport programme on Saturday at the BMW Sports Trophy Award Ceremony in Munich (DE). The BMW M3 GT2 will see action in selected GT races, primarily the 24-hour classics. The BMW drivers will fight for victories in the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) and the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), and will be setting their sights on the titles. BMW will continue its successful promotion of young talent in the Formula BMW Europe and Formula BMW Pacific series, which feature on the same bill as Formula One races. Customer racing also remains an important component for BMW Motorsport: a BMW Z4, which complies with GT3 regulations, will be added to the range of products for private teams.

BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen says: “I am pleased that we are able to offer our fans an attractive motorsport programme in the first year since our withdrawal from Formula One. In production car racing, BMW has enjoyed countless triumphs throughout the course of its long racing history – whether with close-to-production touring cars or imposing GT sports cars.

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BMW of North America announced today that it has signed Bill Auberlen, Joey Hand, Tommy Milner and Dirk Müller to drive for the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team in the 2010 American Le Mans Series. This will be the second season of competition for the Hilliard, Ohio-based team.

The experienced quartet piloted two GT-class BMW M3s to third in ALMS Manufacturer points in 2009 in a first-year season that delivered one victory, five podium finishes, two 1-2 M3 qualifying efforts, and three fastest race laps. Auberlen and Hand drove to the team’s first win at Road America on August 16th and finished the season 14th in Driver points. Milner and Müller finished fourth in Driver Points and brought home the team’s second 2009 victory on October 31st at the inaugural Asian Le Mans Series race in Okayama, Japan.

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Yesterday, Autoblog reported that BMW might be reducing the number of its cars in the next WTCC championship. Currently there are five teams competing in WTCC and the report says we might see only two left next year.

That means eliminating the national teams system it had in place, consolidating and putting its WTCC-spec 320si in the hands of Team Schnitzer (BMW Team Germany), which gains triple champion Andy Priaulx from BMW Team UK to partner with multiple race winner Augusto Farfus.

Two-time CART champion, Alex Zanardi, who was racing for BMW Team Italy-Spain, is moving to the Superstars Series.

Could this be a cost cutting measure?

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