BMW Announces Drivers for FIA WEC 2018 Super Season
As part of the 2017 BMW Season Review, the German manufacturer has announced four drivers who will be piloting the brand new BMW M8 GTE in the FIA World Endurance Championship Super Season.
Nick Catsburg, Augusto Farfus, Antonio Felix da Costa and Martin Tomczyk are the team that BMW have put together to mount their attack on the 2018/2019 WEC season. Bringing together a wealth of experience from single seaters, touring cars and endurance racing, this lineup is certainly not one to be sniffed at.
Catsburg has plenty of 24-hour races in GT machinery under his belt, including Spa, the Nurburgring and Daytona, experience which should prove highly useful during this extended season. Augusto Farfus may be better known for his touring car racing (he is also driving for BMW in DTM this year), but he is, in fact, the only driver in the lineup with Le Mans experience. Martin Tomczyk brings 15 years of DTM experience to the table, on top of a couple of years in various GT series, including IMSA's GTLM. Martin's former DTM team-mate da Costa completes the lineup. Antonio has spent the last couple of years racing with a completely different set of kit - the electric single-seaters of Formula E. The majority of da Costa's experience comes from single-seater racing, so it will be interesting to see what he brings to the team.
Tom Blomqvist, Alexander Sims and Philipp Eng are also expected to join the lineup for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, though due to the limit on the number of drivers in any given car, one of these three is assumed to act as a reserve driver for the team.
Earlier this month, the M8 GTE completed a successful test ahead of the car's debut at Daytona in January. Following the Rolex 24, the car will run parallel programs in the FIA WEC and IMSA. The M8 GTE and its crew make their WEC race debut at the 6 Hours of Spa in May next year.
This article was originally published on Overtake Motorsport.
Shared with permission from the author.
Cover image: BMW AG
