BMW outside the top 10: for team principal Muir, that’s “not the reality”

In 2024 and 2025, BMW secured six consecutive victories at Donington Park with Toprak Razgatlioglu; last weekend, Miguel Oliveira finished 11th, 20th and 12th, whilst the recovering Danilo Petrucci finished 15th, 19th and 15th

Technical Director Chris Gonschor has already explained how BMW found itself in a tight spot following the test on the same circuit at the end of June; Team Principal Shaun Muir analysed the results for SPEEDWEEK.com from a broader perspective. “The results at Donington Park do not reflect the reality of the situation,” the Englishman is convinced. “From the very first race in Europe, we saw that Miguel’s race times were faster than Toprak’s were last year. Until Danilo and Miguel’s crashes, we were also faster in most qualifying sessions.”

“Donington wasn’t a good weekend for us; we need a fresh start,” Muir explained. “We’ve identified a few areas where we need to improve, such as the electronics strategy for engine braking and the braking phase. How the engine braking works gives the riders a lot of confidence – or not so much. That’s why they were braking far too early and then lost all their cornering speed whilst still on the brakes going into the corner. We’ve had problems with this before, but we sorted them out and now we need to do so again. However, it’s not just a matter of getting this right on the bike; the riders also need to adapt accordingly.”

The puzzle hasn’t been put together properly

The ROKiT team boss continued: “At the same time, we need to work on the bike’s strengths to close the gap to the front-runners. We fell behind during the period when the two riders were off the bike due to injury. In the past, this circuit has been kind to the BMW package for many years; this time, the lads weren’t able to put the puzzle together properly. Before we take a step forward, we need to take a step back – we know where to look.”

It is clear that Ducati has built up a massive technical lead with the current Panigale V4R, one that BMW will be unable to close during the almost eight-week summer break leading up to the next races at Magny-Cours in early September. “We have a solid foundation, but we strayed far from it in the last test because we were looking for more,” said Muir. “It’s now clear that we won’t be making a breakthrough with the current package at the moment. We believe podium finishes are on the cards, but not victories. We’ve already proven that at Portimão and on the Balaton Circuit, and we haven’t lost everything – just our bearings a little.”

BMW will use the summer break for two test sessions: likely two days at Magny-Cours in France and one at Estoril in Portugal.