FIA GT2 European Cup

Ratel: “A new FIA GT2 European Championship in 2011″

© Planetlemans – Brecht Decancq

As well as talking about the FIA GT1 World Championship at Spa-Francorchamps Stephane Ratel also spoke about the plans for GT2 in the future at the press conference yesterday. After this year’s FIA GT2 European Championship failure is now has a much brighter future accordingto Ratel.

Stephane Ratel admitted that the plans for the GT2 European Championship for the 2010 season were a failure, but the future is looking good for the GT2 cars under the SRO banner. Ratel confirmed plans exist for a new championship, which would be held in the same format as the 24 Hours of Spa, GT2’s racing together with GT3, GT4 and GTN cars.

“We may not have listened to our teams last year and I think we made a mistake in the championship, maybe this type of format was not for short racing. Maybe we also needed to go to more prestigious circuits, unfortunately a circuit like Adria and Oschersleben is not appealing to our teams. So we reviewed our idea and we will propose our ideas to the FIA”, said Ratel.

The plans for the new championship will see the new series running as a different platform and not with the GT1 World Championship. With the GT1’s leaving Europe for most of its races there is room for a new series in Europe and more specifically on the more prestigious racetracks like Monza and the Nürburgring. The series would consist of four or five races around the Total 24 Hours of Spa, the format will go back to the old FIA GT format of three-hour races and there will be no driver categorization of any kind.

Ratel also said that in his new series the GT2 cars would be able to run with bigger restrictors to give them just that little extra power over the GT3 cars. These plans were already in place for the 2010 season, but a single manufacturer blocked the idea. The GT3 cars will be added so that they can do longer races, next to the FIA GT3 European Championship. Ratel said that the GT3 European Championship in his eyes is a perfect formula and has some of the best teams. GT4 and GTN would also be allowed, the last one making it possible for cars homologated by others to race in the GT2 European Championship.

Even though plans have yet to be approved by the FIA World Motor Sport Council Ratel is very serious about his plans and could already say that he hopes the championship will kick off at Monza on April 18th 2011.

The new series would mean the end of the GT4 European Cup as this championship will be integrated into the new series. National championships will continue to exist, with the Dutch GT4 championship mentioned as a successful franchise. Ratel acknowledged that GT4 will do better on the local market.

Ratel believes his series can take on the current GT2 series. In the LMS and ALMS there are 12 GT2 cars on average and they are a sub category and that is regarded weak. GT2 will be the main series as requested by the manufacturers and Ratel clearly stated that he wants to listen to the manufacturers.

As the new championship would have three-hour long races on interesting race circuits rather than the now standard one-hour races Ratel was asked if he was afraid if some of the teams in his other series would choose this series over the one-hour sprint races. His reaction was clear as he spoke about “the old world of endurance racing.”

“No. The GT format in Europe is no longer long distance. I’m fed up to say the same thing all the time. You have about 20 cars racing long distance, all the others; some 200 are racing in sprint series in Europe, only in SRO championships. And I am not counting GT Open and this is the standard formula of the GT Open, the Italian GT, the British GT. There is room. To some people you have to offer diversity. Some people prefer long distance racing.”

For 2011 to be a successful kick-off season Ratel hopes to attract grids of at least 30 cars and with GT2, GT3, GT4 and GTN all in one series he is confident of getting that number of cars.

Even though the idea of reviving the GT2 category within the SRO ranks is a good step forward it remains to be seen if Ratel isn’t already one step behind. GT Open and the German VLN championship already have fields with mixed classes. Ratel’s advantage on these two series is the FIA backing. Being an official FIA event always helps and it will increasing the number of media covering it worldwide and so far the GT1 and GT3 races could be followed on many TV channels as well as online streaming (apart from the GT1 World Championship Qualifying Race on Saturday). GT Open and VLN have limited coverage.

It also remains to be seen whether the manufacturers who are now racing in the ACO-sanctioned series and who have been in fruitful discussions with the ACO about the future of GT2 will go back to Ratel for this series. On the other side none of the manufacturers would prevent any team from buying their cars and race it in the GT2 Championship.

What we can conclude that Ratel still has GT2 on his sights…