There is a lot of traffic in the Blancpain Endurance Series. Just like Brussels, London or New York at rush hour, the cars can get in each others’ way. But it’s not just on the track, it’s in the pitlane as well.

“In the pitlane, with sixty cars, especially like this, you have to be very, very careful when you work on the car,” explains René ‘Grüni’ Grünewald, chief mechanic on Marc VDS’ #4 BMW Z4 GT3. “Especially outside the garage, if you change the tyres, or fuel the car, there’s always other cars around.”

Each car has to pit twice during the race, and all the cars in the field will stop twice in the race, each within a window of around five laps. The jam in the pits is a frightening prospect, and dangerous.

“You’ve got to be wary of other cars coming in, they might hit you or vice versa if there’s not enough caution. It’s very, very close in the pitlane – you have to look everywhere. You need eyes in the back of your head! It’s not easy, but you have to be careful… I’d rather not get run over!”

At Silverstone, there are 57 cars split across 28 garages, and that presents some pitlane challenges. It means that two cars have their allocated pitstop area in front of one garage – delicate coordination is required.

“It’s more dangerous than it’s ever been, even compared to previous seasons. There’s just so many cars. The problem is that you have one garage with two cars in it – at a normal race you’ll have a garage for every car. That means you have to have two cars’ pitstops right out the front of one garage, so you have to stagger them.”

Of course, you don’t stagger just your own cars – you have to be cautious of the pitstops of cars either side. In Monza, the #3 car lost time when it was unable to arrive in its box properly, an issue that unfortunately could not have been avoided.

It’s a completely different situation to the 24 Hours of Nürburgring – where there are six cars in each garage, but the mix of classes there spread the pitstops out across the stints.

“OK, it’s not as bad as the Nürburgring, where we had six cars in the box, but we still have to communicate with those around us to ease the pitstop tension,” adds Grüni. “And there, the cars in our box all pitted at different times. Here, we’re all pitting just about together.”

Last season’s race at Silverstone saw Marc VDS take victory, thanks to some speedy pit work. Each time the car pitted, it gained positions, which enabled the final push that earned the victory. The team, though, had more space last season, so they’ll need to be wary to earn that advantage again in 2013.

Source : Marc VDS Racing Team