OFFICIAL PROGRAMME · BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
to keep up . But one thing is for sure , I ’ ve never had a better line-up than this ( Scott Redding added to Michael van der Mark ). Obviously , also , with Michael ’ s ( Galinski , the MGM Bonovo very closely linked satellite effort ) team . There ’ s no doubt Eugene and Loris are going to be right up there . For sure , Loris has already proved he ’ s going to be right up there . I feel that we ’ re not going to be winning races out of the box . We ’ re going to be off the pace to start with . We ’ re going to have to adjust to the levels of huge amounts of power , and matching the grip and chassis to go with that . What ’ s been evident now is that BMW has realised is that it is not a Customer Support programme any longer it is a full factory effort with riders employed by the factory . We have no turning back now . As a line-up goes , we have to deliver this season .”
So , how has overall job changed through the various stages that SMR has passed through on its journey to full-factory team for BMW ? “ Hugely ,” said Shaun . “ When we started this ( BMW ) project in ’ 19 , we did everything end-to-end . It was a kind of step up from the Customer Support program , but fair play to Mark ( Bongers , BMW ’ s Dutch Racing Chief ) and the people above Mark in BMW that recognised it needed longevity , the project . We didn ’ t want to see an outgoing BMW Motorrad President all of a sudden decide , ‘ I want to cut some budget ,’ and we ’ re not going to do this . So , they ’ ve been quite cute about that . Mark ’ s is head of M Sport development , so the M1000RR bike is headed up by Mark . So , he ’ s responsible for that division . That generates funds for the team , as well as external sponsorship and my work . Inherently , since we ’ ve migrated the riders ’ contract and the operational of the development role , that has come away from SMR and more into BMW . So , they ’ re developing all the electronics . They ’ re developing the engine internally . Marcus Eschenbacher is inside the team now . We brought MotoGP™ engineers this year - Nicky Winkler has come from KTM MotoGP™ , working on the electronics side with Scott . All those guys are within this BMW kind of group structure , whereas the SMR side of it has moved more into management of it all , and the logistical operational side of it . So , my role has kind of slid to one side a little bit and Mark has come a little bit more to the middle , whereas Mark was totally to the side and it was all me . So , it ’ s very much a 50-50 operation now .”
Life may be getting more and more complicated for the British WorldSBK teams , in some ways at least , but Crescent and SMR are still in there swinging at the epicentre of it all . With Donington being a home round for at least half of their crews , this weekend cannot help but be a bit more special than the others , however global their outlook has to be .
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