Farfus, KRC Not Going to Macau to “Fill Up the Grid”

Augusto Farfus is confident about his chances of securing a second career victory in the FIA GT World Cup at Macau, despite facing something of an uphill battle joining Team KRC.

The Brazilian, who won the event in 2018, has joined KRC to pilot the No. 89 BMW M4 GT3 for the end-of-season event held on the famously challenging Macau Guia Circuit.

This season, KRC has mainly competed in Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS, where Ruan Cunfan and Maxime Oosten secured four class podiums in the Silver-Am Cup.

Its presence at the World Cup forms part of a four-car assault for the Munich manufacturer at Macau, which also features a pair of Team WRT-entered cars for Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde and Motorsport Competence Group (MCG) supporting a Toro Racing effort for defending winner Raffaele Marciello.

While WRT and MCG both have experience racing at Macau, the former winning with Laurens Vanthoor in 2016, this weekend’s edition marks the first time KRC has competed in the GT World Cup.

It does have previous experience of the Guia circuit, notably competing in the Greater Bay Area GT Cup with BMW last year.

Farfus, who finished third with ROWE Racing last year, hinted that his participation with KRC will see him touch base for the first time upon arrival at Macau.

“They are putting in a massive effort, I have to say,” Farfus told Sportscar365 in the run up to the event.

“I’m in constant talks. I will have a lot of support from Munich. Of course, it’s not nice to meet your racing team for the first time on Wednesday.

“It would have been nicer to do a test. We wanted to do a test, but the agenda just did not fit, because I was in Bahrain and I was in Atlanta, there was literally no time to squeeze in a test.”

Farfus admitted that lack of any kind of testing to familiarize himself with the team at a local venue can be “a hiccup on the performance,” even though team and driver have “a clear plan” for the event.

“We could have gone to Zhuhai or somewhere [in the area],” Farfus said.

“It would have been nice to sit in the car, to do a lap, to see the seat position. Meet the people, do a few laps, make sure that the car sounds the way you expected.

“They are well prepared. But it’s Macau, we have two free practices, which will be, how much? Ten to twelve laps each Free Practice? And then we’ll qualify.

“So it’s not like a normal event where you can drive and stop. By green flag in FP1, the car has to be on top of the show.

“So this can of course hurt us, but the level of preparation and effort we are putting [in] and also BMW supporting the team, I think will be will be as competitive as other BMWs.”

Farfus remained confident in his chances of winning as part of a 23-car grid that the Brazilian himself described as “by far” the strongest field in event history.

In addition to a four-car BMW effort, the entry also features former returning winners Edoardo Mortara, Maro Engel and Laurens Vanthoor, as well as an increased effort from Ferrari that features Antonio Fuoco, Daniel Serra and Yifei Ye.

“I’m not going there to participate,” Farfus said.

“And also seeing the commitment from BMW, I mean we are showing up there with four cars, and also showing how supportive BMW is towards KRC, it’s pretty clear that they are not sending me there to fill up the grid.

“They didn’t have to because with the three works cars, there was no need. There was no need to send me there to fill up the grid.

“So if I’m going there, it’s because I have a real chance to win.”