WTCC: BMW before exiting?

The World Touring Car Championship in the coming season awaits heavily changed technical rules, which is why the German carmaker is already considering exiting this championship. BMW last raced with the factory team in the WTCC in 2010, after which it has competed with the non-factory Roal Motorsport, Wiechers-Sport and Team Engstler to this day.

BMW's sporting director Jens Marquardt believes that they can no longer upgrade their current 1,6-liter turbo engines, adding that due to the incomplete rules: "I simply can't imagine a powertrain that would comply with the new rules, which after all, they’re not quite finished yet. There’s talk of 400 horsepower, and that’s impossible for us. Our TC engine was developed on the basis of a 1,6-liter block, as we did not go into the development of a global sports engine. "

At BMW, therefore, they are at the maximum point of development of their engine, which has been in use for the third year in a row, recording six World Championship victories with it. Dominik Greiner from the Wiechers team said that he wanted to stay with BMW, as he has been working with them since 2005, but with the new rules this would be impossible for him: “I hope everything will be delayed for at least a year , as this would mean that we could race this car for another year.

We want to stay with BMW, as this is a fantastic brand, but it seems that it will be necessary to look at other suppliers as well. I hope we will be aware of the future as soon as possible. It is simply not right that all teams in the championship are waiting for a decision from new manufacturers. ”However, BMW remains the second most successful character in the WTCC series, which was revived in 2005. They won 58 victories and three consecutive racing titles 2005) with Andy Priaulx. Only Chevrolet was more successful with 2007 victories.

Perhaps worth mentioning at the end is SEAT, which is also involved in the WTCC through a non-factory team. However, the Spaniards have developed a new version of their Leon Supercope, which is why they insist that the specification of another S2000 car cannot be built without previously known technical rules.