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Two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann is looking forward to leading BMW’s assault on the Bathurst 12 Hour after showing his class at the marque’s private test day.
The 27-year-old German had a series of exploratory runs in Tony Longhurst’s M6 as part of Challenge Bathurst late last week before sharing his race mount with Steven Richards and Mark Winterbottom yesterday.
Wittmann was quickly up to speed on the notoriously challenging circuit, making the most of familiar machinery that many of his Australian BMW team-mates are still coming to grips with.
“I watched quite often on the TV the 12 Hour race and before I came here I played also on the Playstation to at least know where to go,” Wittmann told Speedcafe.com of Bathurst.
“To be honest I did not expect so much uphill and downhill. On the computer games or even on TV it does not look so up and down.
“It takes quite a bit of time to find a rhythm, especially in the downhill part which is very tight and quite tricky.
“There is not any room for mistakes. If you overshoot the brake and are too quick in the corner you end up in the wall.
“It’s really tough to find the limit and to extract the potential in each corner.
“I’ve raced on a lot of special tracks like the Nurburgring, Spa and Macau and this is a special track for me.
“It’s tricky and challenging, but that’s what a race driver likes. I like it quite a lot.”
Russell Ingall, who will share Longhurst’s car with Mark Skaife and German Timo Glock in February’s race, said Wittmann appeared completely undaunted by Bathurst.
“Marco was up to speed very quickly, the track didn’t seem to be daunting to him at all,” Ingall told Speedcafe.com.
“Looking at his data it was like ‘wow, he’s learnt that pretty fast’. It didn’t phase him.
“But we’re talking about a guy who has done the Nurburgring 24 Hour on the old track.
“That’s like four Bathursts, so if you can get around there without being spooked this place is fine.
“Knowing the car certainly helped him a lot, which is the area that’s a challenge for us.
“For me, I’ve got embedded in my head where I should brake, turn-in and accelerate because it’s what I’ve been doing for 25 years.
“It’s hard to get your brain around the fact that the car can give a lot more grip, you’ve just got to have the confidence to do it.”
Wittmann noted that the test was highly beneficial to the team as well as the drivers as it gathered data, but is unsure how well the M6 will fare against its rivals in the race.
“Our car suits high speed corners, but I think the biggest topic will be the BOP, especially for straight line speed,” he said.
“In a straight line there are other brands that are quicker than the BMW, like the Lamborghini, so we have to see.
“First we need to make sure we extract the full potential of the package we have with set-up and balance and then we will see where we end up with Balance of Performance against the others.
“I think we were not far off, but we cannot judge it yet.”
While enjoying the challenge of learning the circuit in the M6 GT3, Wittmann smiled when asked how much fun a DTM car would be to drive around the mountain.
“That would be great but I think we will get a problem in the Dipper,” he said.
“The DTM car is a lot lower in ride height than the GT3 so we wouldn’t make it through that corner without destroying the underfloor.
“We would need to lift the car by a lot, but it would be good fun.
“A DTM car is about five to six seconds quicker per lap compared to a GT3, there’s a lot more downforce available and it’s better under brakes.
“The GT3 is already a great, fun car, but the DTM is another step.”
