P28
IN
THE
WIND
Team Thevent has lost its BMW factory backing for
the 2014 World Endurance Championship.
BMW OUT
OF WORLD
ENDURANCE
I
PHOTOS COURTESY OF REPSOL HONDA
f Team Thevent ends up competing in the 2014 World Endurance Championship, it will do so
without BMW. That's the word
from the team as it announced
on Friday that BMW has pulled
the plug on the effort.
"To say this decision by BMW
was something of a surprise
would be an understatement,"
said team principal Michael Bartholemy. "We were asked by
BMW Motorrad at Le Mans if we
would continue in 2014, to which
our answer was a definite yes. In
November I flew to BMW, again
presented our proposal and the
response was positive."
The decision brings a close to
the team's three-year foray in the
endurance championship with
the BMW S1000RR. In both 2011
and 2012 Team Thevent won
three races to finish second in
the World Championship standings; in 2013 they slipped to 12th
in the championship with just one
finish – a second-place finish in
the German round in August.
"It also puts us in a very difficult position, as we have riders
under contract, a deal with Pirelli
and everything else in place to
race, including five permanent
members of staff and all the specialist equipment that endurance
racing demands," Bartholemy
said. "Our only hope of racing
in 2014 lies with another manufacturer. We have the people, we
have the equipment and, as our
results over the past three years
show, we have what it takes as
a team to win races. However,
what we don't have is time. With
the decision from BMW coming so close to the start of the
season, it leaves us little time to
forge a partnership with another
manufacturer."
But BMW's decision may force
the team to sit on the sidelines in
2014.
"We still have one option to explore, but we're fast running out
of time. It may be that we have
to sit out the 2014 season, before returning to the Endurance
World Championship in 2015."
(Left) Marc Marquez tries his hand at trials. (Right) (From left to right) Toni
Bou, Marc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa and Takahisa Fujinami.
STAND-UP TIME
R
epsol Honda's MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez and his
teammate Dani Pedrosa got a little trials lesson last week from
World Champion Toni Bou and his teammate Takahisa Fujinami.
Together the four have 21 World Championships between them –
Bou (14), Marquez (3), Pedrosa (3) and Fujinami (1).
Marquez and Pedrosa will be back on their MotoGP mounts, February 4-6, for a test in Malaysia.
