Part of the Total 24 Hours of Spa weekend is the annual SRO press conference with Stephane Ratel. The keyword this year was stability and after seeing big, international plans in recent years there was common sense in this year’s press conference.
Ratel confirmed there wouldn’t be any development and no evolutions will be allowed in 2014. The regulation freeze will only exist in 2014. Ratel confirmed three new FIA GT3 models will be eligible to race in the FIA GT Series and Blancpain Endurance Series; the Bentley Continental GT3, the SRT Viper GT3-R and the Callaway Corvette C7.
SRO remains committed to GT3 and Ratel said his organisation is still sceptical towards the FIA’s GT convergence effort. Ratel is still convinced there is a demand for two separate GT classes and believes that GT3 should be the base model on which manufacturers could construct GT2(E) or GT3+ cars.
The Blancpain Endurance Series will not see many changes in 2014. The calendar will remain at five events, with the same events and same dates planned.
– 13 april 2014 – Monza
– 1 juni 2014 – Silverstone
– 29 juni 2014 – Paul Ricard*
– 27 juli 2014 – Total 24 Hours of Spa
– 21 september 2014 – Nürburgring
* = evening race
SRO consulted the teams and had been looking into changing qualifying formats, but as there were no real solutions the decision was taken to not change the qualifying format. There will also not be a grid limitation. Ratel believes the grid will eventually be a healthy 50 cars and made it very clear that they will not reject entries. “Who is SRO to reject entries,” said Ratel. “We might then turn down a team that would have joined us for several seasons, whereas another team that we accept decides to quit after a number of races.”
The changes in 2014 will be minor. The Gentlemen Trophy will be open only for Bronze drivers and teams that enter on a race-by-race basis will not score points from Spa-Francorchamps onwards. Teams that want to run in the Total 24 Hours of Spa will also have to compete in one of the ‘regular’ rounds before Spa.
Stability for the FIA GT Series as well as SRO intends to stick to six events in 2014. One or two rounds might be replaced with more prestigious circuits, the ones likely to go are the ones that hardly attract any spectators. The Pro-Am class will be renamed to ‘Silver’.
There will be no changes to British GT.
MtC
