When the football stars in the German Bundesliga have two matches in one week, they refer to it as an ‘English week’. This week, however, ROWE RACING takes on a genuine English adventure in the Blancpain GT Series: the team from St. Ingbert will compete twice within eight days in the birthplace of motorsport – England. Their busy week kicks off on Sunday (7th May) with the race in the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup at the iconic Brands Hatch circuit. This is followed one week later by the Endurance Cup race in Silverstone.
Following the good start to the season, with sixth and seventh place in the opening race in Misano, ROWE RACING was forced to miss the endurance race in Monza (Italy), as it clashed with the qualifying race for the Nürburgring 24 hours. However, the team now returns to action with both its BMW M6 GT3s in the Blancpain GT Series. The German outfit still has a score to settle at the undulating Brands Hatch circuit, where it was denied a good result by technical issues last year.
BMW works driver António Félix da Costa will make his race debut for ROWE RACING at Brands Hatch. The Portuguese will share the cockpit of the #99 BMW M6 GT3 for the first time with regular driver Philipp Eng (Austria), who finished sixth alongside BMW DTM driver Tom Blomqvist at the opening round in Misano. Félix da Costa is a talented all-rounder, having already driven as an Formula 1 test driver for Red Bull Racing and spent three years with BMW Motorsport in the DTM from 2014 to 2016, during which time he claimed one race win. He won the Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix for the second time last year, and has raced in Formula E since the series was launched in 2014. He was involved in the Blancpain tests in Le Castellet with ROWE RACING.
Back at the wheel of the #98 car will be the two “flying Finns”, Jesse Krohn and Markus Palttala, who are looking to back up their fine seventh place in Misano. Krohn made his debut for ROWE RACING in Brands Hatch last year, but never got to drive in the race, as the car was forced to retire with an early technical issue.
After qualifying on Saturday, the team from St. Ingbert will field both cars in the one-hour qualifying race at the demanding 3.703-kilometre track in the county of Kent, roughly 35 kilometres southeast of London. This gets underway at 13:00 German time (12:00 local time) and determines the starting grid for the main race, which is also 60 minutes long and starts at 17:15 CET (16:15 local time).
António Félix da Costa, ROWE RACING #99 BMW M6 GT3: “I’m pumped to have my first Blancpain experience. After my test in Paul Ricard earlier in the year, I quickly grew to like the car and the ROWE team. Having Philipp alongside me in the #99 car is great for me and I’m looking forward to learning from him. It’s my first time on the longer Brands Hatch track, as I only raced on the Indy layout before. Let’s see what the weekend brings. I’m excited about pushing the M6 hard.”
ROWE RACING team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf: “We hope to be able to build on the good results from Misano, having had really bad luck with technical issues at Brands Hatch last year. António Félix da Costa will start his first race for us. He is a very versatile and, above all, fast driver, and we are really looking forward to his debut. We want to do a good job of integrating António in the team. The track at Brands Hatch is incredibly interesting and very demanding, with many fast and cambered corners. It is a really natural circuit, not a new track. Plus, it is always great fun to race in England, as the fans there have a very good and close relationship with motorsport. As such, we are really looking forward to our ‘English week’, with the races at Brands Hatch and in Silverstone.”
