Stephane Ratel on Saturday held his annual SRO Motorsport Group press conference, confirming the 2016 plans for his championships. The main news was a 10-round (five endurance, five sprint) Blancpain GT Series calendar, plus a series of measures designed to bring the sprint and endurance elements closer together.
2016 Blancpain GT Series Calendar:
8-10 March: Paul Ricard test (both)
8-10 April: Italy (circuit TBC – sprint)
23-24 April: Monza (endurance)
7-8 May: Brands Hatch (sprint)
14-15 May: Silverstone (endurance)
24-25 June: Paul Ricard (six hours – endurance)
1-3 July: Nurburgring (sprint)
5 July: Spa 24 Test (endurance)
28-31 July: Spa 24 hours (endurance)
26-28 August: Hungaroring (sprint)
17-18 September: Nurburgring (endurance)
1-2 October: Barcelona (sprint)
The 2016 British GT and GT Sports Club calendars will be announced in two weeks’ time at the Misano Sprint Series event. Misano is also likely to be the venue for the 2016 Sprint Series opener.
Primary sponsor Blancpain will return in 2016 for its sixth year of involvement with SRO, while the relationship with Pirelli has been renewed for a further five years, as well as extending to the British GT championship for 2016. Next season will also see Pirelli’s current ‘endurance-spec’ tyre used for both Endurance and Sprint events.
Ratel (above) admitted disappointment with how the Sprint Series has panned out this season (just 15 cars showed up at Portimao), particularly the relatively late cancellation of the round in Baku and the transfer of the Moscow round from the city centre to Moscow Raceway circuit. Part of the response to this is a commitment that the Blancpain GT Series will remain an EU-only championship for the forseeable future and the reduction in the number of overall events from 12 to 10.
Class structures harmonised
As part of an effort to better unify the Sprint and Endurance elements under the Blancpain GT Series banner, their class structures will be harmonised for 2016.
Across Pro and Pro-Am, the general classifaction and prize money will now be decided on the basis of overall finishing order.
Ratel also indicated he was keen to avoid Pro-Am becoming a ‘second Pro category’, so for next year the maximum Platinum-Gold-Silver-Bronze driver line-up at the Spa 24-hour race will be reduced to Platinum-Silver-Silver-Bronze. In the Sprint Series, Pro-Am line-ups will be limited to Silver-Silver or Platinum-Bronze, while the Endurance Series Am class will be extended to the Sprint Series, with Bronze-Bronze pairings permitted only.
SRO has also requested that the FIA reclassify some fast Silver drivers to Bronze.
SRO Silver Cup
A new ‘SRO Silver Cup’ will be established, aiming to offer an affordable route into GT racing for up-and-coming young drivers. It will take place across the five Sprint Series events and two British GT rounds (most likely Silverstone and Spa, according to Ratel) and be open to 2014-spec GT3 cars with 2015 update kits, but not new-for-2016 machinery.
Teams will have to enter four cars, with two drivers per car. There will be a separate podium for this cup, along with a fixed pit-stop time, two sets of new tyres per round and a revised Balance of Performance with lighter and less powerful cars to help reduce running costs.
Prize fund
The prize fund for 2016 Blancpain GT Series will be €150,000 per event, split between up to 11 entries. Prize money will only be paid to full-season entries that are not factory-supported – and only if there are at least three cars entered in a class. The breakdown is as follows:
Overall
1st: €30,000
2nd: €25,000
3rd: €20,000
4th: €15,000
5th: €10,000
6th: €5,000
Pro-Am
1st: €15,000
2nd: €10,000
3rd: €5,000
Am
1st: €10,000
2nd: €5,000
Champion drivers at the end of the year will be awarded a Blancpain watch worth €21,000.
Sporting regulations
To compete in the Blancpain GT Series Pro Cup category (including the Pro Cup at the Spa 24 Hours), a manufacturer must enter a minimum of two cars in all 10 events, with at least one running in the Pro class.
A Bronze/Silver-driver session will be introduced at Sprint Series events, with the first free practice session at those races shortened as a result.
For BoP purposes, the total weight of cars will now include an average driver weight of 85kg.
A minimum pit stop time will be introduced for Endurance Series events. According to Ratel, it’ll be fast enough that ‘you’ll need to be good’ to achieve it, but it’s intended to bring a halt to increasingly complex and costly developments aimed at making refuelling and wheel changes even faster. In addition, at the Spa 24 Hours, each car will have to take a longer ‘repair break’ before the 20-hour mark, to avoid cars going the full 24 hours without changing brakes.
Also announced were the continuation of the GT Sports Club sprint series for gentleman drivers and SRO’s acquisition of Dutch trackday organiser Curbstone Track Events.
Intercontinental GT Challenge for 2016
More than 30 cars are expected for the first SRO-run Sepang 12 Hours this December, and in 2016 the event will form part of a manufacturer-focused ‘Intercontinental GT Challenge’ (which has yet to get its final name) overseen by SRO.
The other events making up this series will be the Spa 24 Hours, the Bathurst 12 Hours and a new three-hour Blancpain Endurance-style event held at the Circuit of the Americas in co-operation with Pirelli World Challenge (but not forming part of the PWC championship calendar). It’s intended that manufacturers would nominate top local teams to represent them in the respective events, to avoid the logistical challenge of transporting cars.
SRO will provide the Balance of Performance and technical control for all events, but their sporting regulations will not be fully harmonised until 2017.
SE
