BMW Motorsport announced its 2016 plans at the annual motorsport gathering in Munich on December 4. There are few surprises as BMW gets ready for its 100th anniversary season. The same teams and drivers will run in DTM, and the M6 GTLM and M6 GT3 will make their debut in GT racing worldwide. The core driver lineup at BMW Team RLL remains unchanged, and Team Schubert continues at the Nürburgring.
What’s new? The lineup for Turner Motorsport’s IMSA WeatherTech GTD program has been announced, and the German Rowe Racing team will switch from Mercedes to BMW, closing the gap left in Europe by the shutdown of Marc VDS.
In DTM, where BMW will defend the manufacturers’ title that it earned in a difficult year, all eight drivers will return. Marco Wittmann, Maxime Martin, Bruno Spengler, Timo Glock, Augusto Farfus, Tom Blomqvist, António Félix da Costa and Martin Tomczyk will be back to run for BMW Teams Schnitzer, RBM, RMG, and MTEK. Specific driver assignments to team have not yet been announced.
In the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship (get used to reading WTSCC), BMW Team RLL will run a pair of M6 GTLMs in (what else?) the GTLM class, with the same core team of drivers, Bill Auberlen, Dirk Werner, John Warner, and Lucas Luhr. In long endurance races additional drivers will include DTM racers Farfus and Spengler, Graham Rahal, and Kuno Wittmer, joining BMW after driving for Aston Martin in GTD in 2015 and winning the GTLM title in a Viper in 2014. In the GTD class Turner Motorsport will campaign two M6 GT3s. Michael Marsal and Markus Palttala will drive car #97 while Bret Curtis, who ran for Turner in Pirelli World Challenge in 2015, will join Jens Klingmann in #96. BMW Motorsport Junior Jesse Krohn will be on board for the long enduros and DTM racers Wittmann and Martin will run with the Turner team at Daytona.
The M6 GT3 will be campaigned with factory support in the Nürburgring 24 Hour race by both BMW Trophy Team Schubert and Rowe Racing. Rowe will also contest the 24 Hours of Spa and will run the entire Blancpain sprint and endurance series. While a number of BMW factory drivers will run with these two teams, specific season-long driver assignments have not yet been announced.
BMW Motorsport indicates that customer teams will run the M6 GT3 in a number of GT series worldwide, including the IMSA WeatherTech Series. Teams are yet to be announced, although BMW says that a combination of new and existing customer teams will compete. Also, the M235i Racing Cup series will continue.
BMW brand ambassador Alessandro Zanardi will focus on defending his gold medals in the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janiero. His focus on his handbike program means that he will not be involved in any motorsport projects before the Rio games.
More announcements from Munich can be anticipated this weekend.—Brian S. Morgan
