BMW Testing – Monza – Day 3
It has been quite a day today at Monza for the third and final part of the Schnitzer BMW test – writes Gabriele Tosi.

The temperature didn’t rise above minus 2 degrees, and the snow arrived at 11.30 this morning, cutting the test short.

The final surprise of this three day test was Pedro Lamy (out of job after the death of the V8 Star Series) completing a good number of laps in last year’s M3 GTR.

Lamy was setting times between 1:50 and 1:53, which seemed to be the mark for this test, in this weather.

Then Dirk Muller tested the 2004 GTR, commenting that he always seems to have bad luck with this car: “I haven’t tested it enough and every time some problems strike me…” Apparently the grip drops away dramatically when the track is this cold. Muller reckoned it wouldn’t be much fun next week, for the ETCC / FIA GT test at Monza (if it stays this cold).

The new car is basically the same as last year’s. Jorg Muller wasn’t a fan of the traction control. “It kills my style of driving – but in these conditions it helps prevent you having an accident.

“I am satisfied with the amount of work we got through with the 320 Touring: the target was to make sure everything was working perfectly: the weather didn’t help us, and there was no chance to complete any long runs.”

“We had too many drivers for the test! Ralf, Gerhard, Pedro…but anyway I did lots of work in the 320 Touring.”

Hopefully the weather will improve next week...