Why BMW may have an advantage at the Nurburgring 24 due to cancelled races

Only the Abt-Lamborghinis represent similarly familiar territory, but the DTM team has yet to prove it can win the main event on pure pace alone. That leaves Rowe Racing as the defending champion.

“Being able to race with the same team-mates, with the same line-up, in the same team, makes everything easier. We just have Jordan in the car now to replace Jesse,” the Brazilian explained.

“But me and Lello, we also do the GT World Challenge together, so we know how to work and how to do it. Even if we didn't have enough preparation, I think we're prepared enough to put on a good show.”

Due to a volatile weather forecast, Raffaele Marciello expects a completely different race compared to last year.

"It's never easy. The weather looks unknown, let's say. It looks sunny, but then wet. It will be a difficult race. We will try our best," he told Motorsport-Total.com.

"it will be a difficult race," according to Raffaele Marciello

Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network

"It's 24 hours, so you have to stay close to the front. It's not like the other 24-hour races where you have safety cars and stuff, so you have to push. You have to take some risks at the end, but we will try to win the race again."

Marciello does not see a major issue in the cancelled races either, at least not for the #1 entry: "Maybe it's a bit more tricky for guys like Sheldon [van der Linde] or Dan [Harper] who didn't race here last year. But for me, at the end, now I'm going to Nordschleife every year since eight years or something. You need like one race, some practice and you're fine.”

However, he admitted that things did not go entirely as desired: "Maybe we thought it was a bit easier, but in the end we actually pushed, and the other car [Schubert] was actually quicker than us in NLS3.

“So, now we have to work as a team with Rowe, and we have to try to beat them, because they were very fast, not because we were late or something.

"They were fast, so hopefully we can find what was the issue. I mean, I was not in the qualifying race, but they had some issues. So, hopefully we can improve the car and have a good race.”

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However, it's important to note that the M4 GT3 Evo is not exactly the same car as last year. Some may have noticed the significantly lower boost pressure compared to 2025, which in some rpm-areas, is down by more than 0.5 bar. Was Kevin Estre right with his accusations following the 2025 edition?

The truth is a little less spectacular: BMW homologated a new turbocharger over the winter. Therefore, the values are not directly comparable to each other.

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