FIA GT Championship

Ratel about future FIA GT plans

© Planetlemans – Sander van Dijk

On July 27 SRO chairman Stephane Ratel organised a press conference about the current situation of the FIA GT Championship and the plans for the (near) future. Ratel was very clear about what he expects from the series and what his plans are to meet his expectations. A full transcript of the press conference can be found below.

“One year ago here at Spa, I took the important decision to step out of the Eurosport – WTCC package, and start all over again with the FIA GT Championship on our own. There were two challenges facing us. The first was to find some television, as all our television, not only the production but also the broadcasting in Europe and all the international distribution was managed and controlled by Eurosport. And also we had to recreate events, as all the events agreements were owned at the time by Eurosport. So it was a case of starting from a white sheet of paper.

What can we say one year down the line ? Was it the right thing to do ? I think at the end, with some mixed results, we have overall succeeded. In television, in some countries we have better coverage than we used to have. We wanted more live coverage; as you know, three-hour races are not easy to broadcast. In Great Britain we are a lot stronger than before, with a combination of Bravo, Player and an edited program on Channel 4, a very important terrestrial network. In Italy, thanks to Sky Italia, we also have coverage entirely live. In France we have compensated Eurosport with quite a good combination on Motors TV, AB Moteurs and Sport +. We are weak in some other countries; I have to say that Germany is not the best place for us at the moment. We do have a one hour programme on DSF, which is the equivalent of Eurosport, but it is in the week and is not enough. And strangely enough, in Belgium, we are not as strong as we should be, considering that our biggest event of the year is here.
Outside of Europe, worldwide, we are a lot stronger than we used to be, because we are now just about everywhere. We are live in all the Gulf countries, we have coverage in South America, in America, all over Asia. So from a world point of view we have more coverage than we had before.

On the events, we have succeeded in rebuilding a strong package. This season, from Silverstone onwards, thanks to the Maserati Trofeo, to the Ferrari Challenge, the Renault World Series, the British F3 International Series, we have a very good support package which means that our events are still looking very good and are very strong. On the number of spectators, frankly speaking, we haven’t lost anything. At Silverstone we saw an increase over last year. In Oschersleben, we had around the same as last year. Brno was also around the same. We need to see at Spa this weekend. At the moment, on the spectators side, it doesn’t look as if we have lost a lot compared to last year’s package.

On the grid of the FIA GT Championship, you’ve seen the evolution. Last year was a difficult year. We had a good GT1 grid but no GT2 to speak of. On average we had five or six cars, with about 16 in GT1. This year we have lost GT1 cars, with an average of 11, but the GT2 grid is a lot stronger, with between GT2 and G2 we have had around 16 cars. You will agree that this weekend at Spa, it is very good. Also what has helped us this year is the resounding success of the FIA GT3 European Championship, with eight different brands represented, with 17 teams and many cars on the grid.

But I want to insist that GT3 is and will remain a support to the GT Championship, and we have no intention to replace GT1 and GT2 with GT3. I want to make that very clear. All SRO is doing, all our National Championships, are to support what I am really aiming for, which are for me the dream race cars and what I want to see at the top level : the GT1 category, which I will continue to support and which I will fight for as long as I can, and, alongside the GT2 cars. I think we are all pleased to see the new Porsche car this weekend which, out of the box, seems to be very competitive. I think we have some very good years ahead with the traditional fight between Porsche and Ferrari in GT2. That is what I really appreciate the most.

{mospagebreak }Our strategy remains the same as that which we presented last year. I am still working on the project of a GT World Championship for GT1 cars. I don’t know when it will happen, if it will happen, but I am still working on it. We came to the conclusion that it is impossible to do without the support of the manufacturers. I will do my round of presentations, going round those manufacturers who have shown interest for GT1, and see if one day, with their support, we can have a World Championship for GT1 cars. The day that we have a World Championship with GT1 cars, we will have a European Championship for GT2 cars, and with the European Championship for GT3 cars, the idea is to have a format based on the Motogp idea, with three classes running in the same meetings, which I believe could be a success.

Our biggest challenge to succeed is not to have any pre-conceived ideas. We have to reduce costs in the GT1 category. I have discussed at the last race, and will continue to discuss with the teams, on how we can reduce costs. There are many different ways to do it, and we will try it, as GT1 has maybe reached a cost level which is too high at the moment. We are also thinking of different formats. Maybe a combination of longer distance races, like the Mil Milhas of Interlagos, where we will start the season next year, or a combination of shorter, more spectacular races, may be something we will look at in the future.

And also, the most important thing is to go to events where we can really create something. I think the Proximus 24 Hours of Spa is obviously a great event; there are others, so we want to go to markets where we are promoted strongly with people dedicated to making our events a success. We have seen that the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy in Silverstone is growing year after year, and has very good potential. Street circuits also offer fantastic opportunities, and we are very disappointed with the result of our Bucharest project this year. But we really believe it is not dead and will happen one day. That is what we are aiming for the future.

This year building a calendar was very difficult. Ending our negotiations with Eurosport brought us down to about October, so we started late. We will not make the same mistakes twice. We started negotiating very early, and have been in contact with many promoters around the world. As I’ve been saying for a couple of years, the FIA GT Championship is a global series, and is aiming to go back globally. Next year we will go global, and we are working on that at the moment.

We will start the season on March 10th. I won’t give all the dates, due to possible changes. But I would like to salute Mr Antonio Hermann, promoter of the Mil Milhas Brasil, who is here today. So we will start in Brazil. Not in January, as he has accepted to change the traditional date, but in March. Then we are very optimistic to have a second race, the weekend after, another race in South America. I cannot yet give the location, but we would then stay for two weeks in South America with two fantastic races. We will then go back to China. Everything is finalised, the contract is signed. That will be in April. And we will come back to Silverstone in May for the beginning of our European season with the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy. Then we want to have a race in Eastern Europe. We are very confident that the Bucharest project will come to life. Then we will go to Germany, the traditional date in early July, then on to Spa for the Proximus 24 Hours. Then we want to have a race in Italy, that is obvious, and possibly a race in France, before going back for another overseas event. We are discussing with many other countries including Australia, South Africa, America and other locations in the Middle East. We will conclude with our traditional final in Dubai, which will be in November. A very busy season with a minimum of four races outside Europe, and possibly five.

These overseas races will be on the condition that we will cover the transport costs for the teams, which is our commitment. We will remain with ten tickets, because I don’t think teams should have more than 10 personnel to go abroad, but we will transport the cars and a reasonable amount of freight to support the team’s needs. That is our programme for next year, which we believe holds the keys for success in the future. “