David Pittard is having a good time in the #991 BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Paradine Competition. He is currently in the car for his second stint of the day (Saturday evening 21:30h). The Brit is pleased with the performance of the team and the car and speaks out his trust in how they will handle the challenges ahead.

GT REPORT spoke to the endurance winner ahead of his second stint while temperatures started to go down towards the end of the day. Pittard looked bright, fit and enthousiastic as always, and sounded like that too: “I’m loving life this week, because I think the BMW is very driver friendly in that respect!” he says.

“The whole fan and AC system is a significant update to what I’m used to. So, I’m loving life. We’ve got this amazing seat fan which blows onto your core, and I think that keeps the rest of you cool too. I’m glad I’m not doing double stints yet. I think it was a good decision to just do single stints for now. It keeps us fresh.”

Pittard is sure that double stints during the night will be managable. “You just need to keep a cool head, cool car and survive at this stage,” he adds. The #992 BMW had a very good opening phase of the race. James Kellett took the start and gained 22 positions. The squad is currently running in P2 of the Bronze cup.

Night stints will become interesting: “Big balance shift”

The weather is a factor all weekend already due to the heat, but soon rain and maybe a thunderstorm can also add a little spice to the race. “I don’t think the strategy will change too much. We just need to stay out of trouble, get to eighteen hours, see where we’re at and then full push from there. I’m really pleased with how well the car handled the heat,” Pittard says.

“Normally I’d say the heat is its limiting factor, but today it was brilliant. If that’s the same tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be very happy. It’s quite interesting because there’s going to be a big balance shift in the track temperature. Therefore the balance in the car will change significantly too. The drivers will need to be super adaptable.”

Pittard points to the small amount of setup changes each driver can make with the roll bars and the pits stops. “The rest is down to driving style, the systems in the car. I think it will suit the adaptable drivers. People have to stay open minded as to what the car needs at various points in the race to be quick.”