BMW works driver René Rast: A positive season and plenty to look forward to this winter

The “gift” René Rast had been hoping for to mark his recently celebrated 40th birthday failed to materialise at Monza. In an interview with SPEEWEEK.com, he explains why the positives still outweigh the negatives in his season’s review with the BMW M Hybrid V8: “The positives outweigh the negatives because we made great progress and hardly made any mistakes,” says the Bregenz resident. “We were competitive on many circuits and fought for victories. Take Le Mans, for example – last year we were still a long way off the pace there. The fact that victory at Le Mans eluded us by such a narrow margin is, of course, a bit of a let-down – at my age, you don’t get many more chances! When you don’t win after a perfect race, you have to ask yourself what went wrong. That’s why I was very downhearted afterwards.”

Up until the middle of the season, Rast was in contention for the World Championship title, but three races in which he scored zero points each dashed those hopes. “The fact that we didn’t achieve one of our goals – the World Championship title – doesn’t weigh as heavily as the missed victory at Le Mans. But it has to be said that Toyota were very strong and highly competitive on all circuits. Whereas we weren’t on circuits with lots of corners. We need to improve in that area,” says Rast.

Commenting on the finale at Monza, he explains: “The race got off to a good start. At one point we were on course for a podium finish, but we encountered some technical problems in the closing stages which set us back. That’s a shame, because we deserved a podium place. We’ll now analyse the season in detail and determine what adjustments we need to make for next season, for example in terms of car set-up.”

A return to the DTM, which has been mentioned time and again, is “not on the cards for next year, but perhaps it might happen in the future. However, this year I’ve seen how, thanks to a reduced programme, I’ve had much more time for home and my family, and how lovely that was. That really opened my eyes. After all, the job of a racing driver isn’t just about the weekends, but also tests, media days, preparations and so on. Our children are now ten and three; I want to be there to watch them grow up.”

Rast seems at peace when he says: “I’ve won three DTM titles – more than I ever dreamed of. And yet my time in the DTM only began nine years ago. That’s why I’m very content and at peace with myself.” And he’s looking forward to the winter and some time for his private life: “I’ll probably have a break from now until the start of January. I’ve decided to go skiing a lot with the children this winter. And I recently picked up three boxes of old VHS tapes whilst visiting my parents. I’m going to digitise them all. They contain footage of my childhood and my early days in karting. That’s my winter project.”

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