BMW Team Studie x CSL announced their driver line-up for the upcoming 2023 Autobacs SUPER GT Series at Tokyo Auto Salon.
Studie’s GT300 efforts will once again be led by their ace driver, Seiji Ara. The 48-year-old veteran driver, best known for winning the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans, drove the new BMW M4 GT3 to its first Japanese victory (and his first career GT300 win) at the third round at Suzuka Circuit this past May. Ara finished 11th in the GT300 Drivers’ Championship, while the team finished tenth in the Teams’ Championship.
This will be Ara’s eighth season driving in SUPER GT with Studie since 2014: He has been with Studie since they spun off from Goodsmile Racing, and he rejoined them once more in 2020 after the team took a two-year hiatus from the series.
Joining Ara for most of the 2023 season is BMW factory driver Bruno Spengler, making his SUPER GT debut. Spengler, 39, has been a BMW works driver since 2012 – and in his first season with the manufacturer, Spengler won the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) championship in BMW’s first season back in the super silhouette touring car series. After 15 years in DTM, Spengler raced for BMW Team RLL in the IMSA SportsCar Championship from 2020-21, and in 2022, he competed primarily in the FIA eTCR electric touring car cup.
Spengler will take the place of Augusto Farfus, who will now turn his undivided attention to BMW’s new M Hybrid V8 prototype in IMSA.
BMW Team Studie x CSL also announced that another SUPER GT mainstay, Masataka Yanagida, has joined the team as their third driver. Yanagida, a two-time champion in both GT500 and GT300 classes, will not only accompany the team in the longer-distance 450km races, but will also replace Spengler should he be unavailable to race in certain rounds due to priority commitments in BMW elsewhere in the racing world.
For Yanagida, it is his fourth different team in as many seasons. He drove the first three rounds with Drago Corse, until their GT300 programme was terminated due to financial problems for title sponsor Busou. It will also serve as a reunion for Ara and Yanagida, who were team mates at Kondo Racing in late 2006 following the retirement of Érik Comas.
Yasuaki “Bob” Suzuki and Yuichiro Takane will continue as Team Director and Chief Engineer of the new-look #7 Studie BMW M4 GT3, and Michelin will continue as the team’s tyre supplier for 2023 after a winning season for the French tyre manufacturer.
Images © Pierre-Laurent Ribault, BMW
