Pitlane Diary

21st November 2010 - Macau, China

Gambling is a large part of the way of life in Macau and, although I am not a gambling man, I know an enormous amount of luck plays its part when you head to the casinos. This weekend in Macau I needed a lot of that luck and, while at some times I felt any luck that might have been riding with me in my BMW was sitting in another car, at the end of the day I feel pretty lucky.

I love this part of China and the race track there round its narrow streets. I can think of no better place to spend the final weekend of the FIA World Touring Car Championship, and, while I don’t usually wish my life away, from the first race of the season in Brazil I was relishing my return to the track where I won my three world titles.

The end of each season is always an emotional time. There are always regrets about some things that may have been in your own control that didn’t turn out well. While on the other hand, there are those warm feelings about how well certain events have played out.

As I get ready to party and then begin the long trek home via Hong Kong to Guernsey, I do not have any regrets as I reckon this has been one of my best years in the car, despite no title at the end of it.  I have the best team I have ever driven for in BMW Team RBM. The RBM boys from Belgium are like a family and on a scale of one to ten they get 12 – a true world class team. They have helped me to six race wins this year and no less than 18 over the six years of the WTCC – making me the record holder for the most number of victories.

Anyway now down to the nitty gritty about this weekend, as it was pretty frantic from the word go.   Macau is a long, narrow street track where yellow flags, safety car periods and red flags are never surprises. On Friday we had our two usual free practice sessions and then qualifying was due to happen at the end of the afternoon.  However, all our plans were thrown out as a driver in practice for a local touring car race hit the barrier with such force that it bent it back and the subsequent repairs took well over an hour.

When we finally got our qualifying session under way we were no better behaved than he was. First of all Tom Coronel hit the barriers six minutes into the session.  Red Flag number one. The repairs took over an hour.

Secondly I hit the barriers – hands up my own fault - and while I was trying to work out how to get back to the pits for repairs, despite losing my left front wheel, my bacon was saved by Masaki Kano who spun his BMW just where I was parked and blocked the track. Ref flag number two. This was about half way through the first 30 minutes of the session and, thankfully, I was then able to get going again and safely make the slow trip back to the pits. My boys descended on the car and started ripping damaged bodywork off, putting a new wheel and parts of the suspension back and, obviously, using lots of tape! 

With seven minutes to go it was the turn of Kristian Poulsen and Sergio Hernandez to both hit the barriers with their BMWs. Red flag number three. Luckily by this time my car was back in running order and so I was able to get out and see how it felt.

Then with just over a minute and a half left Tom Coronel hit the barrier for the second time. Red flag number four. By this time the session had taken nearly two hours to get in the 30 minutes of running time. As if this wasn’t bad enough, it was 17.45 and in Macau sunset was at 17.42.

The organisers quite sensibly decided our play time was over for the day. Sadly this meant we lost our ‘day off’ on Saturday and were ordered to turn up for an 08.00 top ten shoot out.  Actually in one way I was delighted about this, as I had managed to put in a good enough time before hitting the barrier to be seventh quickest. Sadly on Saturday I just didn’t feel hooked up with the car. At the time I couldn’t put my finger on the reason, but subsequently the boys found out it was a defective damper. I was happy to find the reason for this, but in the end I only managed a time fast enough for eighth on the grid.

Race day saw more of the same chaos in the other races, but luckily our first one got away on time. I had hardly any time to enjoy this when I felt an enormous thud from behind and I was propelled into the barriers. This was just a few yards after the start line. Back to a three wheeled BMW! Luckily again I managed to drag my way round the track. My poor boys it was déjà vu from Friday. Again they came up trumps and, while the front runners were still behind the safety car on lap six, I was back out checking my car and ready to do battle in race two.

Don’t imagine I am finished with this sorry tale of dramas.  For race two I was 22nd on the grid, but managed to get away cleanly and even avoided Alain Menu from the front row, who had stalled. By sector two I had made it to 13th and was feeling pretty chuffed.  I was flying, but suddenly I realised there was no one behind me. Twelve cars behind me had crashed into each other and blocked the track. Out came another red flag. We then sat on the grid and it was 30 minutes after the first start that we were sent off again behind the safety car for one lap. I had the bit between my teeth and a great car beneath me.  It was like a hot knife through butter as I made my way past one car after another, and suddenly I found myself in seventh. That was where the progress stopped as I knew the fast boys were ahead.  Also unbeknown to me my team-mate, Augusto Farfus, had been having a monumental battle with Rob Huff and Yvan Muller who were treating him pretty badly!  He was punted so hard from behind that his rear bumper came lose and was flapping around.  But he never gave a place without a big fight.  I didn’t see what happened but I was told he was amazing.

Sadly the race was over too quickly, but I can’t tell you how great it felt to have a car that I believed in different circumstances could have won.  I had to settle for seventh and the few points and also only fourth in the title race. Sadly any chances I had of fighting Yvan Muller to the end of the season in Macau disappeared after an FIA ruling that made our gearbox ineligible in the previous rounds in Japan, and meant we lost all our points from the two races there. Despite being miffed about this, I want to congratulate him and Chevrolet on winning both championships.

Now it is time to have some relaxation back at home with the family. However, first I must address the one question everyone has been asking me in Macau – what am I doing next year? All I can say is watch this space.  My boss at BMW Motorsport, Mario Theissen, has invited me to Munich on the 4th December for the Sports Trophy Presentation and has told me the world will be told that afternoon what BMW has planned for me.