FIA World Touring Car Championship – 2008 season review

FIA World Touring Car Championship – 2008 season review

The FIA World Touring Car Championship came to an end with a thrilling finale in Macau (MO). However the drivers of the BMW national teams were out of the running for championship titles two rounds before the end of the series. SEAT driver Yvan Muller (FR) succeeds Andy Priaulx (GB), who won a hat-trick of world championship titles for BMW Team UK, as touring car world champion.

Once again Priaulx was the best-placed BMW driver in the overall classification. He ended the season in fourth, having scored 81 points. BMW Team Germany driver Augusto Farfus (BR) picked up 63 points to finish sixth in the Drivers’ Championship. His team-mate, Jörg Müller (DE), ended three points further back, in seventh. BMW Team Italy-Spain’s two drivers, Félix Porteiro (ES) and Alessandro Zanardi (IT), followed in 10th and 13th respectively. A fourth title, too, evaded BMW in the Manufacturers’ Championship, where the German company, with 274 points, was classified second behind SEAT.

“Our heartiest congratulations to Yvan Muller and SEAT,” says BMW Motorsport Director, Mario Theissen. “With their turbo diesel engine our opponents dominated proceedings this year. Naturally we are disappointed not to have successfully defended either title. Nevertheless we are proud of our results during the season. To have scored six victories in a tightly-contested series is still a respectable achievement. All the same, things must change for next year. The basis is a set of regulations which offer all the manufacturers the opportunity of competing in a balanced and fair competition. This basic principle is absolutely crucial to the future of the World Touring Car Championship.”

Driver quintet more equal than ever.
Early in the season it became clear that renewed title defences by BMW during 2008 would be no easy task. BMW’s victory drought lasted until the event in Pau (FR), where for the first time this year one of the five drivers of the BMW 320si WTCC was able to score victory, with Farfus claiming the first win of the season. Shortly thereafter Priaulx followed up with the marque’s second victory on the “Circuit de Pau Ville”.

At the next race in Brno (CZ), Zanardi scored his third WTCC career victory amid much celebration. In Brands Hatch (GB) Müller managed the leap to the top of the podium, while BMW was able to celebrate its second double victory of the year on home soil at Oschersleben (DE) courtesy of Farfus and Porteiro.

Thus for the first time all five BMW national team drivers were able to score victories in the same year, while they ended the season more tightly placed than ever before. BMW celebrated a total of 24 podium places in 24 races.

Winner from the word go: the BMW 320si WTCC.
When the BMW 320si WTCC made its debut in the FIA World Touring Car Championship on 2nd April 2006, this impressive racing car immediately proved its outstanding performance abilities: not only did Priaulx claim pole position, but powered the car to its first win. Ten further victories followed during its maiden season; nine fell to the BMW national team drivers in 2007. With a total of 26 victories at world championship level to date, the BMW 320si WTCC has proven itself across the globe as a worthy representative of the sporty BMW 3 Series, and has successfully followed in the footsteps of its illustrious predecessors. To date BMW has 24 European and seven World touring car Championships to its name, and only the use of turbo diesel engines by the opposition in 2008 has interrupted the BMW 320si WTCC’s run of successes.

Successful across the world.
The BMW 320si WTCC was developed by BMW Motorsport using the production car of the same name as its basis. Following its successful debut in 2006, the Munich-based engineers were able to continuously improve the vehicle. The demand for racing kits of the BMW 320si WTCC, which can be used by race teams across the world to compete in series using Super2000 regulations, is substantial. By the end of 2008 over 60 examples had been delivered by the BMW Racing Parts division.

The BMW 320si WTCC has won numerous national championships. Among others, this year Richard Göransson (SE) and Jan Magnussen (DK) claimed victory in the Swedish and Danish Touring Car Championships respectively, while in Bulgaria George Tanev (BG) took overall honours, as did Mikko Eskelinen (FI) in Finland. The Independents’ Trophy division of the WTCC, too, was won by a BMW driver: Sergio Hernández (ES) secured the privateers category in a Proteam Motorsport BMW 320si WTCC.