Augusto Farfus feels recent BMW form is “part of the sport”

BMW’s Augusto Farfus feels BMW’s low-key performances in recent races are down to the close nature of 2013’s DTM pack.

Farfus won the season opener at Hockenheim in May, but was unable to get back on the podium until the last round in Moscow a fortnight ago, after withstanding immense pressure from Audi’s Adrien Tambay in the closing stages of the race.

However, the Brazilian believes that BMW’s low-key performances in recent races are down to the nature of the sport and the improvements made by Audi and Mercedes throughout this season, rather than an outright loss of pace from BMW.

“It’s part of the sport,” said Farfus. “If you look at the start of the year, Mercedes were nowhere and now look at them.

“It’s the same as Audi, who struggled last season and now they’re extremely strong, so it’s part of the racing and the DTM changes every race; you have different guys and different brands at the front each week.”

Farfus also believes that the particular nature of the last two races at the Norisring and Moscow did not favour the characteristics of the BMW M3, but he feels that the team has made progress to claw back the lost ground to its rivals.

“I mean, we had the last two races at Norisring and Moscow, and whilst the Norisring is a great show, it isn’t a proper race-track, so that hurt us a bit, and Moscow was similar too. It’s a battle.”

“We’ve made some steps, but we don’t know where everybody else is standing, so we have to wait until qualifying.

“We have to give our very best if you want to be in front, because there’s no margin to take it easy.”

Farfus lies fifth in the championship on 48 points.