Contact Damage Left ROWE Managing “Drop in Performance”

An early collision left the No. 98 ROWE Racing BMW M4 GT3 running with a “drop in performance” for most of the 3 Hours of the Nürburgring which impacted its lineup’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup title chances.

Jordan Pepper’s spin into the side of the BMW, driven by Marco Wittmann during the first stint, dislodged the ROWE machine’s side skirting and loosened the diffuser, while the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 retired on the spot.

Rather than making a lengthy pit stop for repairs, ROWE decided to carry on but its No. 98 car eventually dropped outside the top ten.

Wittmann, Philipp Eng and Nick Yelloly finished 15th, which meant they failed to score points for the first time this season.

That caused the winning Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG crew of Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon and Timur Boguslavskiy to take an 18-point lead in the Endurance Cup, overturning ROWE’s eight-point advantage heading into the weekend.

“The skirt was hanging and we lost quite a lot of downforce with this,” ROWE race engineer Nicolas Ledent told Sportscar365.

“We couldn’t overtake on the straights because of the top speed of the Lamborghini.

“It was one opportunity for Marco to overtake after the mistake of Jordan Pepper, and then there was the contact afterwards. We just tried to finish the race and in the points, but it didn’t work out.

“I think top five was possible [without the damage]. We were P7 but we had a big gap to the car in front because of the Lambo.

“Maybe we could have come back to the front, but it’s hard to say. Now we have to win in Barcelona. Five or six points would have made it less hard, but it’s how it is.”

The Nürburgring outcome means that Wittmann, Eng and Yelloly need to finish second at the three-hour season finale to have any chance of capturing the Endurance Cup title.

Regarding the incident that caused the BMW’s damage, Wittmann felt that Pepper turned into him, whereas the South African said that his Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 was already “extremely damaged” from contact during the first-corner squeeze.

“On the replay, it seemed like he did not want to accept that I would maybe pass him and he just went full-throttle and spun into me,” Wittmann told Sportscar365.

“The side skirt was missing and the diffuser was hanging down, and it was all from the Lambo clash.

“There was no more downforce in the car. If the side skirt is missing and the diffuser is hanging down, you lose downforce, and that caused our drop in performance.

“It was not an easy weekend for us. We could not have chased the Merc or the Audis in front.”

Naundorf Laments BoP ‘Torpedo’ for BMWs 

Aside from the incident, ROWE Racing team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf felt the Balance of Performance at the Nürburgring prevented the BMWs from challenging.

The M4 GT3s were given an 80-millibar turbo boost pressure reduction after the last GTWC Europe Sprint Cup round at Misano, which also represented a 50-millibar reduction in the upper part of the rev range since ROWE’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa win.

The highest-finishing BMW at the Nürburgring was the seventh-placed No. 32 Team WRT car driven by Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts.

“The weekend proved to be as difficult as we had expected and our worst fears came true,” said Naundorf.

“We had no chance after the most significant BoP change of the season.

“We would have loved to have plunged into a direct duel for the Endurance Cup title on the track in Barcelona, but the adjustments this weekend unfortunately made a fair, sporting battle impossible.

“Even if the No. 98 BMW M4 GT3 had remained undamaged, we would not have been able to battle for the podium spots.

“After the collision with the Lamborghini, we stayed in the race to see if we could benefit from any other retirements. But that did not happen.

“It’s a shame when all the hard work from everyone in our team is just torpedoed.”