Augusto Farfus: "What you saw on the last stint is all we have, we really go full hard"

After years of hard work, it was only fitting that Augusto Farfus would be the first to bring the BMW M4 GT3 its first victory in Europe and at the Nürburgring. Having been involved from start to finish in the development programme of the new car as the development driver, the #99 Rowe Racing BMW M4 GT3 pilot gave it his everything against the BMW Junior Team to secure the win with a last-ditch effort in the final laps of the 53. Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy.

NLS3: ENTRY LIST | LIVESTREAM | QUALIFYING REPORT | RACE REPORT | INTERVIEW AUGUSTO FARFUS

Rarely had the VLN Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS) seen a finale as exciting as NLS3. In the dense traffic of the final two laps of the race, the Brazilian grabbed the lead and fiercely defended his position against Max Hesse on the final leg down Döttinger Höhe.

“I pushed hard,” Augusto Farfus enthusiastically tells the story of the final stint.

“This is also the beauty of this place: there are so many variables and we expected with our strategy to start the last stint like 15 second ahead of the [#44 BMW Junior Team] car. Due to the yellows and traffic, we ended up starting 15 seconds behind! So, then I said, you know what… Now I go! And I drove hard!

“It shows that we, BMW, drive as hard as we can – which I don’t think is maybe the case for all manufacturers. But we always play it very open and transparent, and I pushed very hard.

“I was also lucky with traffic at times and had luck on the last lap because I managed to really pull a gap to Max so I was like starting the last three, four kilometres feeling I had it under control. Then I see the two [slower] cars side by side and, oh no, now it’s all gone!

“But it was a good show. The fans come here and like to see it and we delivered an incredible job.”

Asked if it was perhaps a risky move on a fellow BMW team with the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring just one month away, the Brazilian disagrees, citing the trust both he and Hesse share in each other.

“We just drove like that because we know each other very well. And there was space for him: I moved a little bit to kind of understand which side he was going, but I always left space. And then he came alongside and there was full space for him – that’s how we should race. But he was on the outside so I knew if I could have gone to the bottom [at Tiergarten], almost at the braking point on the inside, I knew he had to brake because the corner was for me. That’s what I was hoping, and it worked.”

The door-to-door fight with Max Hesse was that of teacher versus student as Farfus had tutored the BMW youngsters in the #44 machine in 2021.

“I helped them too much! It is a great satisfaction, because I did a whole year last year with them. I mean, I help them, but they are very talented drivers so it’s not like I had to do much – and I have to say, they understood it very well!

“They did an incredible job and it pleases me to see BMW believing in young talent and giving them the same chance as anyone else, I think it’s an incredible message to the world that there is still room for young drivers to make their way.”

And thus, the first victory at the Nürburgring was secured for the brand-new BMW M4 GT3. Having been in the works for over two years with rumours about the M4 model serving as the base for BMW’s next GT3 first popping up in the summer of 2019, Farfus was involved from the beginning as the lead development driver for the project.

“It is… I don’t know… It’s very emotional for me. We started this car and I was the main driver for this [programme]. I always said that this car is incredible, this car is incredible, and now it’s the first victory in Europe, with me, first victory at the Nordschleife, with me. I did the first lap of this car at the track last year, so it is an incredible feeling.”

One more race remains until the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring with the ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers coming up the second weekend of May. Does BMW’s NLS3 dominance not worry in terms of unfriendly tweaks to the Balance of Performance?

“No, because we just do what we can and it is pretty easy to see that the other ones drive at 60, 70 percent. I don’t want to comment so much on that, but it’s just… If you just see the pace they did last year at the last NLS. We can do the same, and we always have been doing the same. Some competitors don’t. I’m sure Nürburgring knows and they can see that.”

Going into the month of May, Farfus heads the challenge of the ‘N24’ with full confidence.

“We don’t come here to be second – we come here to push to win. That’s what we’ve been doing, that’s our target. I think we are on the right path.

“People will speed up a lot for the ‘24’ – some brands will be faster! What you have seen there, on the last stint, that is all we have, we really go full hard. We drive with what we have, that is BMW policy and I think that’s how motorsports should be done.

“It is a very difficult task for the promotors to understand the BoP and so on, and we just drive hard – I think it will pay off.”