The 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship is officially underway for BMW Team MTEK and the new BMW M8 GTE.
In the opening race in Spa-Francorchamps, the #82 car driven by António Félix da Costa and Tom Blomqvist finished fifth in the GTE Pro class, “I’m pleased with that for our first time out.” said da Costa, “We learned a lot and turned it into a good result. It was the first WEC race for both Tom and me, and we were competitive around many experienced Championship drivers.”
Credit: BMW
BMW Motorsport Director, Jens Marquardt was especially pleased with the M8 GTE debut on the world stage, “The new BMW M8 GTE has passed its baptism of fire in its maiden FIA World Endurance Championship race at Spa-Francorchamps. The interest in our WEC debut and our new car was huge. It was great to see how we have been welcomed by the fans and the series as a whole.”
The focus for the BMW Motorsport team now turns to the next race of the so-called “Super Season” at Le Mans next month.
Credit: BMW
Team-mates, Martin Tomczyk and Dutchman Nick Catsburg, the drivers of the #81 BMW, could only manage eighth after losing time during a pit stop in the early stages of the six-hour race due to no fault of their own.
Catsburg was clear about how the new car had performed, “Today was a good learning experience for the team and us drivers. It was great to get our debut WEC race ‘under our belt’, as this race gave us a lot of time of time to prepare under race conditions, but we leave knowing there are some areas to work on ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is only a month away.”
