BMWs in the GT World Championship?

Next year, the FIA ​​GT World Championship will replace the current FIA GT1 World Championship. Indeed, the discipline will see GT1s compete with GT2s and GT3s, all cars being obviously subject to the balance of performance to be almost all at the same level.

A regular host of the FIA ​​GT3 European championship, the BMW Z4 could therefore join the ranks of the world championship in 2012. The Marc VDS Racing Team has understood this well, and could well turn to the propeller firm for its program next year. And to best judge the potential of the car, the Belgian team has decided to enter a Z4 during the next 24 Hours of Spa (July 30-31) for the trio Bas Leinders-Marc Hennerici-Maxime Martin in instead of one of his usual Ford GTs (see here).

“The opportunity to run a BMW Z4 at Spa could not be refused for several reasons, explains Jean-Michel Delporte. We have already seen this season how competitive the car is in its GT3 version, and I am confident that it will also be competitive in endurance races like the 24 Hours of Spa. Obviously, we will have to make some modifications, to move it from a sprint version to an endurance version, but these changes are minor. We are also thinking about next season, where the rule changes will make the BMW Z4 eligible for the FIA ​​GT World Championship. Running the car at the 24 Hours of Spa gives us the ideal opportunity to judge whether the BMW Z4 is a good basis on which to make a competitive GT1 (in reality a car eligible for the GT World Championship, editor's note) for the 2012 season. Spa therefore promises to be a very interesting race in more than one way, but our objective remains the same: to win! »