BMW Wants Local Teams to Run Suzuka Effort in Future

BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos said it is “definitely our plan” to further develop its GT3 customer base in the Asia-Pacific region, as the Bavarian marque is the only one relying on a European team for its Pro effort in this weekend’s Suzuka 1000km.

With a pair of BMW M4 GT3 EVOs entered by Belgium-based Team WRT, BMW is the outlier in the 33-car field that is set to contest the penultimate round in the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

IGTC title rivals Porsche and Mercedes-AMG both depend on Asia-based teams for their overall victory bids, with the former represented by Chinese squads Origine Motorsport and Phantom Global as well as Hong Kong-based Absolute Racing.

Mercedes-AMG, meanwhile, has called upon Goodsmile Racing (Japan) as well as Craft-Bamboo Racing and GruppeM Racing (both Hong Kong) for its Pro cars.

The third BMW on the entry list does come from the region, with Taiwanese squad Team KRC entering a Bronze car for Ruan Cunfan, Maxime Oosten and factory driver Neil Verhagen.

Meanwhile, long-time Japanese BMW customer Team Studie, which also represents the brand in GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS, has opted to skip the event.

When asked by Sportscar365 if BMW aims to expand upon its customer base in Asia and Oceania in the future, Roos replied: “It’s definitely our plan. Generally, that’s the idea behind the IGTC.

“Unfortunately, in Australia we don’t have any GT3 cars yet. We have a lot of GT4 cars from BMW there, but at the moment we don’t have a GT3 car there.

“But it’s things we are discussing, to also have GT3 cars there. So at the end, Bathurst, we have to bring cars there to compete in the championship.

“Japan, we have some cars there, but for this year we took the decision to send again WRT there to run the cars. But maybe in the future, as you said, there is a possibility also to run it with local teams.”

WRT was a relatively late addition to the Suzuka grid, initially not appearing on the provisional entry list in July before confirming its presence at the event in August.

“It was just administrative stuff,” Roos explained. “Before we announce something, contracts have to be signed and deals have to be made.

“We were clear from the beginning that we would take the decision after Spa about how we continue with the Intercontinental GT Challenge for the rest of the year. On the other hand, when you look back the last years, we always did the whole championship. But still, we said we would take the decision afterwards.

“Then we took the decision and then you have the normal process in place and you have to get everything approved, and get it through our systems and so on.

“Like it is with with drivers or with teams or with programs, we can and we will announce them as soon as it’s fixed.”

Farfus Adamant WRT Not at Advantage Over Asian Teams

IGTC points leader Augusto Farfus, who shares the No. 31 Team WRT BMW with Dan Harper and Max Hesse, warned against underestimating the local teams that the Belgian squad will be up against, partially because of their local knowledge.

The Vincent Vosse-led squad last raced at Suzuka in 2019, when it won that year’s ten-hour IGTC round with an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo driven by Kelvin van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor and Fred Vervisch.

“I don’t think it’s an advantage,” Farfus said when asked about being the only European team in the Pro field. “The Asian teams are still supported fully by their factories. There will be Europeans running the cars.

“And it’s easy to underestimate those Asian teams. I don’t know the Chinese teams so well, but I know in SUPER GT for example there are some very capable teams who could have an edge on us because they have more experience of Suzuka than us.”

Additionally, Farfus pointed out that the updated M4 GT3 has never run at Suzuka, as the circuit doesn’t feature on this year’s GTWC Asia calendar and BMW went unrepresented in August’s Suzuka 300km in SUPER GT.

“It will be the first time with the EVO at Suzuka, first time with the DHG [tire], first time with the resurfaced track,” Farfus said.

“Also my two teammates [Dan Harper and Max Hesse] don’t know the circuit, but they are professionals and we have been to so many different tracks with the EVO. I think we have a fair idea of what we need for the car.”

Jamie Klein contributed to this report