BMW, Alpine Explain Strategic Route to Imola Podiums

Photo: MPS Agency

BMW and Alpine both credited a strategic decision to cut short their respective penultimate fuel stops in Sunday’s 6 Hours of Imola as the key factor in securing their first FIA World Endurance Championship podiums of the season.

Rene Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde captured second place aboard the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 at Imola, with the No. 36 Alpine A424 of Fred Makowiecki, Jules Gounon and Mick Schumacher a further 3.960 seconds further back in third place.

It marked the first top-three finish of the season for both brands, with the most recent podium finish for both dating back to the 6 Hours of Fuji last year.

Speaking after the race, both BMW driver Rast as well as Alpine’s Gounon explained that their respective teams made the call to cut short the penultimate fuel stop, which allowed them to both gain track position as well as make up further ground with a lighter car.

“I think that was a goal and was a key to today’s success,” Rast said.

“Because we did a very good second to last stint where Sheldon was pushing flat out and was undercutting everybody. That was basically key to success today.”

Gounon gave a similar explanation on Alpine’s behalf, noting that the French squad opted for this approach as overtaking was proving difficult on the tight, twisting Emilia Romagna circuit.

“So what the team did is that we saw on this track, the track position is the thing,” Gounon said.

“If you’re stuck behind a car that’s going one second slower than you, you just can’t pass.

“So we decided to divide our last stint on a double two times short because we could not make it anyway in one stint.

“But instead of fueling full and then a short splash at the end, we say we go for 18 and 24 laps, which made us a very light car.

“For those two stints, which helped us to have an amazing pace because we were light compared to the others. And that’s why we recovered.”

Gounon also noted that the clash between Sebastien Buemi and Antonio Fuoco with 38 minutes to go played a part, which occurred when the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid and No. 50 Ferrari 499P were leading on an alternative strategy and also in podium contention when they came to blows at Tamburello.

“Obviously the fight of the Toyota and the Ferrari helped us a lot,” he said.

“Because we were fighting with them virtually and as they were fighting a lot [and] then the contact, that’s why we passed them.

Notably, Alpine’s strategic route to the podium differed from BMW’s in one key aspect, as the No. 36 machine made extensive use of the Soft compound tire.

“Basically, we were the first one to go on Softs in my stint,” said Gounon.

“I was on Soft where everybody else was on the Medium. We went on the Soft for hours to the end which was at that time a difficult call because I think the track temperature was quite high.

So we tried to put [on] the Soft very early in that sense. And this gave us, I think, also at the end, a great opportunity to put them on [for] Mick because we knew with me how the pressure reacted, how the tire deg reacted.

“My second stint was quite difficult with the Soft at that time of the day. But I think the cloud cover came [and] the track temperature was dropping.

“We went to 28 [degrees] in my stint to 22 at the end and the Soft at the end with the short fuel was an amazing call from the team and that’s what brought us there on the podium.”

Rast revealed that BMW and WRT had also considered a switch to Soft tires as track temperatures dropped.

However, those plans were abandoned with when the Virtual Safety Car was called after a collision between Valentino Rossi and Simon Mann with just over two hours to go.

“We were thinking about it because the clouds were coming and it was getting colder and colder and colder,” Rast said.

“And I thought, okay, maybe the Soft is the right tire. We had the Soft ready and then the virtual safety car came.

“And then we decided, ‘Okay, we go to the Medium because after the virtual safety car, you have the safety car.

“So you had time to warm your tires up. That’s why you put in the end the Medium again.”