2012 FIA GT1 World Championship

Preseason Thoughts

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NOGARO - FRANCE


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ZOLDER - BELGIUM

GT1 WORLD

GT1 World adopts GT3 regulations for 2012

FIA GT1 World Championship to adopt unified GT3 technical specifications for 2012

The FIA GT Commission proposes to harmonize the FIA GT1 World and FIA GT3 European Championship’s regulations as well as their calendars in Europe to guarantee the growth of the FIA GT sprint platform.

With so many GT3 cars having been homologated since SRO first proposed the category in 2005, GT3 is the natural choice for the premier GT sprint series, and with most of the current GT1 generation coming to the end of their homologation period, a move to the GT3 category was the logical step.

“With the difficult economic climate and the ever-growing competition in motorsport we felt that the unification of the GT1 World and GT3 European Championships’ technical and sporting regulations was the best solution to guarantee the growth of the sprint format for GT cars and progress toward the ultimate goal of 10 teams representing 10 brands in the World Championship” said Stephane Ratel, founder and CEO of SRO Motorsports Group.

“We had a fantastic end to the 2011 season, meeting all our objectives in terms of coverage, spectator attendance and grids, with an extremely successful campaign in China, a grand finale in Argentina and an amazing GT3 finale in Zandvoort.

“As previously announced, the concept for the GT1 World Championship in 2012 is to have each team being the exclusive representative of one particular brand of car.

“By adopting the GT3 technical regulations, we are opening the way for the addition of a host of brands. Such a diversity of prestigious models in a single category would make the FIA GT1 World Championship unique in international motorsport.

”Besides the recent confirmation of World Championship winning team Hexis entering McLaren cars, teams bringing more prestigious brands are set to join the fray and are currently weighing up their options. A number of teams are expected to announce their participation shortly.

The unification of the sporting regulations will see the FIA GT3 European Championship adopt the exciting pit-stops and Qualifying/Championship Race format seen in GT1, while retaining the driver categorisation system. There will be no driver categorisation in GT1, aimed at the top professional teams and drivers, which will move over to the traditional-style qualifying seen in GT3. As always, the cars will be balanced by the FIA to ensure equal performance.

“The FIA GT3 European Championship has remained unchanged since 2006, and has given rise to many national series around the world, which have copied the format,” Ratel explained. “The European Championship needs to regain its own specific nature and be more professional. We have therefore decided to adopt the best of the World Championship, in order to turn the European Championship into the perfect training ground for GT1. The teams and drivers will also benefit from additional media and TV coverage.”

Ratel added that in the event of a worsening economic situation in Europe where a minimum of 20 full-season entrants would not be garanteed in each championship – FIA GT1 World and FIA GT3 European – a merger could be an appropriate solution, made possible by the harmonised format. The calendar and revised sporting regulations will be submitted to the World Motor Sport Council in early December for ratification.


http://gt1world.com/news/article/innovative-plans-for-2012


So basic - GT1 cars are now dead GT3 cars are now GT1 cars.

Told you it were confusing

I thought it was to be known as the GT World Championship?

We've known this for a while though..

It's been on the cards for quite a while as only AMR and JRM wanted to continue using the GT1 cars whilst all the other entered teams wanted to use GT3 cars, i think it's good that they're moving to GT3 as the racing has been fantastic in the British GT, ADAC Masters, Blancpain Enduro series etc so good call Ratel!

This is whats confusing about it!!

I thought the GT1 world Championship was changing to the World GT championship with GT1 speeds. Then it was decided to change to GT3 speeds, but still call it World GT. Autosport had an article regarding Brands Hatch possibly hosting a round of GT1!?

So GT3 is GT3, apart from in the World GT, wheres its GT1?

Well, remember, it's still officially called GT1, it would probably cost money to change the name. ''GT1'' itself could be used to differentiate the championship from the national ''GT3'' series, rather than reflecting the cars used within the championship.

If Autosport simply said ''World GT'' without the ''World GT'' name being officially announced, then people would see that as bad journalism too.

It's not confusing!

It makes sense to keep the series going, but it screws all the GT1 teams that spent money on their GT1 spec cars and the manufacturers like Reiter who were making the GT1 cars.

I think I would rather just see the series cease to exist and have all of that talent join the WEC in GTE.

I quite enjoy the WGT format. It's like what Touring Car racing should be.

And besides, Endurance racing is not for GT's, it's for Prototypes. GT's were only brought in to fill the grids at Le Mans after the fall of Group C.

EDIT - And by 'endurance', I mean with Prototypes. GT only Endurance racing is great!

Duncan wrote:“We had a fantastic end to the 2011 season, meeting all our objectives in terms of coverage, spectator attendance and grids

Less competitors than one of our GT rounds...

...if that's an objective, stefan rattle needs to just give up.

GT3 spec will boost grids for sure BUT, with the European GT3 Championship (SRO) and Blancpain Endurance Series (SRO) al using GT3 you have to wonder how they will have room for it, unless they place it as a World GT3 series which doesn't exist yet.
Problem is, how will they link in the series with the European rounds...
Already rumblings that GTW will go to Brands Hatch, whether thats instead of Silverstone or including it is unknown. I'd be very suprised if SRO would want to give up the TT race at the 'Home of British Motorsport'.
Calendar out sometime in the next week...

Calendar released, noticable lack of Paul Ricard, Abu Dhabi, or anything in Britain, Italy or Germany!?

April 8 - Nogaro (France)
April 22 - Zolder (Belgium)
May 27 - Navarra (Spain)
July 8 - Algarve (Portugal)
Aug. 26 - Beijing (China)
Sept. 2 - Ordos (China)
Sept. 16 - Moscow (Russia)
Oct. 7 - Zandvoort (Netherlands)
Nov. 25 - San Luis (Argentina)
TBA - TBA
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/gt1-2012-schedule-released

That's a huge disappointment.
The WTCC has also seemingly given up on the UK too. So the GT's don't want to do the TT anymore? I find that really hard to believe.
We still have Bancpain though so we're all good

oh well Brit GT championship here we come

Matt wrote:That's a huge disappointment.
The WTCC has also seemingly given up on the UK too. So the GT's don't want to do the TT anymore? I find that really hard to believe.
We still have Bancpain though so we're all good

That race didn't deserve to be the TT. The TT should have always been awarded to the winners of the WEC race... Which could still happen!

Confirmed Teams and Cars so far:

?Young Driver AMR - Aston Martin Vantage GT3?
WRT Blegian Audi Club - Audi R8 LMS Ultra
Vita4One - BMW Z4 GT3
Hexis - McLaren MP4-12C GT3
All-Inkl.com - Mercedes SLS AMG GT3

Hopefully there will be a bunch more entries, or this could be worse than the British GT series in 2009!

The FIA Dead Horse World Championship...

...wait theres about 3 FIA Dead Horse World Championships, they should merge.

GT"1"s
WTCCs
and WRC...

...on off road aswell as circuits...

...am I the only one with ideas?

I am actually pretty excited for the FIA GT championship this year. With it now being changed to the affordable and highly available GT3 specs, I don't believe that there will be the massive short comings of cars we had last year, the racing will be awesome, as seen in last years GT3 and Blancpain series. Less of the Touring Car aspect we had last year.

So, sorry Adrian I disagree with that part of it, as this season should be a belter! Certainly alot more exciting and entertaining the F1!

The World Touring Chevy Championship, and the almost closure of the WRC, yes i agree there.

They only need to remove the number from the title, "FIA GT World Championship" then I'll agree that its a good championship.

Duncan wrote:oh well Brit GT championship here we come

I'm doing the Silverstone rounds this year. Mega grid and awesome entries in all three classes.
Will definitely be worth it

The Munich All Inkl Racing team have revealed their livery for 2012!

http://gt1.muennich-motorsport.com/

I wondered how long that would take you

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97415

Ferrari are now a confirmed entry for 2012, Ratel's also said that the SRO are in advanced talks with a few other teams so the 2012 GT1 season could actually turn out to be a decent one with the addition of a few more teams!

SRO not ACO lol