Politics and BoP – BMW’s Jens Marquardt on the evolving GTE field

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It has been a tough start to the FIA WEC campaign for BMW and their new M8 GTE. They were three seconds off the ultimate pace on the Thursday running. Though better on Friday morning, Team boss, Jens Marquardt explains some of the difficulties in assessing their speed for WEC competition.

#82 BMW Team MTEK BMW M8 GTE: Antonio Felix da Costa, Tom Blomqvist, Wednesday set up, 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, Circuit De Spa-Francorchamps, Route du Circuit, Francorchamps, Belgium

While confident that the cars have the pace to be at the front, stating that BMW comes to any race to win, the task for the WEC has been made more difficult by differing rules coming into the season when compared to American competition.

“I think, if you take the Prologue – it is the first round, when compared to the Roar [before the 24] there no scrutineering, at the end of the day you have no ideas what the cars are like. So realistically speaking, the first data point is today,” BMW Motorsports Director, Jens Marquardt said.

“I can’t really tell you with the BoP. We are competing against the strongest competitors. What I think is really good is that we have perfect conditions. So people won’t be able to say ‘oh it was raining’ – we get a pure point now. This is what we have to then look at after the race.”

#82 BMW Team MTEK BMW M8 GTE: Antonio Felix da Costa, Tom Blomqvist, FP1, 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, Circuit De Spa-Francorchamps, Route du Circuit, Francorchamps, Belgium

“At the Roar with the scrutineering, you have a data point – so you understand where the whole field was so it wasn’t open up for discussion.”

He is already seeking to have meeting with WEC technical representatives regarding BoP. As outlined in the rule set, there will be a BoP set for Le Mans, before returning to this set for Silverstone. They will then be reviewed for Fuji.

“So far as I understand there has only been an evolution package that has been balanced. Now there are two new cars and you have to look at what you have in place takes care of that properly.”

“In the BoP is very easy – it is called Balance of Performance. You need to have the Balance of Performance as quickly as you can.”

“…I think if you get a new situation for the very first time, look whether at what you had in place fits and covers all of that – good all covered. Or first time in reality we might be in a situation to do an adjustment to do things better. I think this is the drive everyone has.”

#81 BMW Team MTEK BMW M8 GTE: Martin Tomczyk, Nicky Catsburg, FP2, 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, Circuit De Spa-Francorchamps, Route du Circuit, Francorchamps, Belgium

The WEC finds itself in a new position for this race – with an extended Superseason and two new cars for GTE wiht the new Aston Martin Vantage also joining the BMW in making its debut at Spa.

“If you see you are way off the pace what do you do? Do you wait for two races before it can kick in and you are half way through the year. At the end of the day, it is all hypothetical. We will have to see where we are once we through this.”

“I think that the BoP for Le Mans has to be set and for sure the data from this race will go into this.”

Naturally the siuation will develop over the weekend as the true race pace develops and whether we see a quick lap here or there. In any case, so long as there is sportscar racing, the question of BoP will always remain.

For BMW, the cars have successfully completed the Daytona 24 and Sebring 12 Hours and proven themselves reliable with the development of the car being run across both teams.

#81 BMW Team MTEK BMW M8 GTE: Martin Tomczyk, Nicky Catsburg, FP2, 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, Circuit De Spa-Francorchamps, Route du Circuit, Francorchamps, Belgium

The RacerViews info

Words by Sam Tickell, May 2018

Photo from Paul Foster, May 2018

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