Connect with us

GT World Challenge Europe

WRT’s Campaign “Compromised” by Early-Season Setbacks

Series of setbacks put WRT on back foot in first Endurance Cup season with BMW…

Photo: BMW M Motorsport

Team WRT’s hopes of challenging for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup in its first season with BMW have been “very much compromised” by early-season setbacks according to the Belgian organization’s sporting director.

Both of WRT’s Pro-class BMW M4 GT3s have retired from one of the opening two races, with the No. 32 car dropping out of podium contention at last weekend’s Paul Ricard 1000km due to a broken steering arm following light contact with a Ferrari 296 GT3.

It came after the No. 32 lineup of Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts saw a potential podium run at the Monza season-opener fade away due to tire damage caused by debris.

The No. 46 BMW featuring Valentino Rossi finished eighth at Ricard but it didn’t reach the checkered flag at Monza due to diffuser damage from a puncture.

WRT’s Kurt Mollekens explained that the Belgian team is approaching its first season with BMW “race-by-race” but that the Endurance campaign is ‘already compromised’ despite more points being available at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa on July 1-2.

“We’ve got a lot of work on our plate,” he told Sportscar365.

“But for us, it’s normal. We are discovering a lot of things. With the Audi, we would expect when to have loss and gain of pace pretty accurately. Here, we cannot predict anything.

“We might look at the BoP and think, ‘that looks strong,’ but we are nowhere and then we end up being competitive. We are discovering a lot of things and learning about this car.

“It’s a bit unfortunate because we’re throwing away points in the championship. We were an easy P2 in Monza and then we had a tire cut because of debris. We lost a lot of points there, finishing sixth.

“Here, top five was always on the cards [for No. 32]. We got zero points.

“Endurance is already very much compromised. Even in the overall [combined GTWC Europe standings] we need to do miracles in Sprint if we are going to recover from that.

“But it is what it is. We take it race-by-race for now and see where we get with it.”

Mollekens explained that the No. 32 BMW was unable to continue after its contact with the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari at Turn 5 due to a small part of the steering arm breaking.

Representatives from WRT and AF Corse were called to the stewards for a hearing over the incident, which was determined to have been the fault of neither Weerts nor the Ferrari driver Daniel Serra.

“We were having a very good double stint with Charles,” said Mollekens.

“He was catching and passing people and having a good race until halfway through the second stint, where he caught [Simon] Gachet. There was a lot of blocking. Then the others caught up and they did get past, so I think a bit of frustration started setting in.

“I don’t think that he expected the Ferrari to be there when they ran into each other. It was right to call it a racing incident.

“I don’t think anybody was particularly at fault. It was just unfortunate because the steering arm broke and it’s a silly little piece of nothing.

“It’s not something that easily brakes, but it just depends on the angle you hit it. When you’ve got the wheel outside of the wheel arches, and you hit it then, it can easily break.

“That’s what happened. It was a bit of a silly one.”

AF Corse team manager Bernardo Serra, for his part, agreed with race control’s decision not to apportion blame.

“The steward has judged it as a racing accident,” he told Sportscar365.

“It was clear that the No. 71 was right in front. Weerts tried to turn the corner and hit my car in the back. But it was a racing accident.

“I was pretty upset, but when I saw the onboard camera [from Weerts], it’s possible that he didn’t realize until the last moment that he was next to him.”

WRT team principal Vincent Vosse described Paul Ricard as a “tough weekend” for his team.

“We have a lot to learn from it,” he said. “The competition here was particularly strong, especially the Mercedes, but we still could have hoped for good results… let’s focus now on Spa, focus on what we have to sort out and hope for better results there.”

Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.

Click to comment
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

More in GT World Challenge Europe