The provisional list of FIA driver rankings for 2023 has been published with some 137 ratings provisionally altered (subject to appeal) and a further 37 currently under review.
The high number of changes was predictable in the wake of the revised system revealed earlier this year but it presents significant challenges for numerous teams in all major Championships in their planning and execution of 2023 campaigns as drivers are matched with available budgets and ranking mixes permitted by regulations, in particular in Pro-Am formulae.
The 137 altered ratings include 94 drivers who have seen their rating upgraded, and 43 with downgrades, many of which are age-linked.
A new crop of Platinum-rated drivers, the largest increase in many years sees 25 drivers move from Gold to Platinum including a number of drivers in the new Hypercar and GTP prototype classes but also including a number of driver with relatively new factory contracts in GT racing, plus others who are regularly nominated by factories for customer programmes.
By far the largest group is the 58 drivers set to move from Silver to Gold with 20+ from the FIA WEC and/ or ELMS fields and with the winning drivers from GT World Challenge Europe’s Silver Cup all ‘promoted’ too.
And there are significant names on the list of 11 drivers moving from Bronze to Silver including Ahmad Al Harthy, Sarah Bovy and Freddie Hunt.
Notably too, both Bovy (Bronze to Silver) and Michelle Gatting (Silver to Gold) are uprated from the ‘Iron Dames’ programme.
Amongst the 37 ratings still under review are Gold rated GT racer Vincent Abril, Silver-rated LMP2 drivers Juan Manuel Correa and Josh Pierson (announced only today as partnering Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis in the FIAWEC – a partnership that will not be permitted if Pierson is upgraded to Gold). Double ELMS Champion Memo Rojas’s move from Gold to Silver is under review as is the similar move from Robert Wickens.
From the initial list of 194 rankings under review some notable names have seen no change including Bronze-rated Josh Caygill and Ben Keating and Silver ranked Rik breukers, Jordan Collard, Anders Fjordbach, Leo Roussel, Mike Skeen and Alexander Talkanitsa Jr.
The full list of alterations provisionally confirmed and those still under review:
Upgrades
Bronze to Silver (11)
Ahmad Al Harthy
Andrew Bentley
Sarah Bovy
Jerome de Sadeleer
Elia Erhart
Conrad Grunewald
Richard Heistand
Freddie Hunt
Thomas Merrill
Kristian Poulsen
Loic Villiger
Silver to Gold (58)
Rui Andrade
Matt Bell (UK)
Michele Beretta
Rene Binder
Bastian Buus
Henrique Chaves
Marcus Clutton
Lorenzo Colombo
Reshad de Gerus
Ulysse de Pauw
Marvin Dienst
Thomas Drouet
Charlie Fagg
Lorenzo Ferrari
Sennan Fielding
Robby Foley
David Fumanelli
Simon Gachet
Nick Galante
Michelle Gatting
Sean Gelael
Benjamin Goethe
Ben Green
Mikael Grenier
Laurin Heinrich
Max Hesse
Malthe Jakobsen
Pierre-Alexandre Jean
Erik Johansson
Kyle Kirkwood
Nicolai Kjaergaard
Marvin Klein
Niklas Kruetten
Patrick Kujala
Rasmus Lindh
Dean Macdonald
Stevan McAleer
Nico Menzel
Daniel Morad
Thomas Neubauer
Will Owen
David Pittard
Sebastian Priaulx
Oliver Rasmussen
Frederik Schandorff
Fabian Schiller
Steijn Schothorst
Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer
Loris Spinelli
Jamie Stanley
Casper Stevenson
Duncan Tappy
Parker Thompson
Kay van Berlo
Tijmen van der Helm
Neil Verhagen
Bent Viscaal
Marius Zug
Gold to Platinum (25)
Jack Aitken
Lucas Auer
Klaus Bachler
Matteo Cairoli
Dane Cameron
Matt Campbell
Mattia Drudi
Ricardo Feller
Dan Harper
Mathieu Jaminet
Mikkel Jensen
Marvin Kirchhöfer
Dennis Lind
Gustavo Menezes
Patric Niederhauser
Nicklas Nielsen
Dennis Olsen
Jordan Pepper
Alessio Rovera
Luca Stolz
Sheldon van der Linde
Renger van der Zande
Tristan Vautier
Charles Weerts
Nick Yelloly
Downgraded
Platinum to Gold (2)
Ruben Barrichello
Oliver Gavin (Happy Birthday!)
Gold to Silver (13)
Atila Abreu
Uwe Alzen
Jamie Campbell Walter
Gregory Guilvert
Tom Long
Ryo Michigami
Markus Palttala
Kota Sasaki
Kimiya Sato
Domenico Schiattarella
Paul Tracy
Juichi Wakisaka
Jonathon Webb
Silver to Bronze (28)
Anouck Abadie
Akkarapong Akkaneenirot
Nick Boulle
Maxime Dumarey
Philippe Gache
Bertrand Godin
Alexandre Guesdon
Peter Hackett
Richard Hawken
Warren Hughes
H.H.Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahim
Ian James
Steve Jans
Reema Juffali
Nic Jönsson
Constantin Ketzer
Lorenzo Lopez-Fernandez
Paul Morris
Morio Nitta
Johnny O’Connell
Julien Piguet
Kittipol Pramoj
Vincent Radermecker
Paul Radisich
Naotaka Sakamoto
Sandra van der Sloot
Takumi Takata
Isaac Tutumlu
Still Under Review
Vincent Abril (Gold)
Rui Aguas – (Gold to Silver)
Matthew Richard Bell (not either of the US or UK Matt Bells) Bronze
Oscar Bitter (Silver to Bronze)
Alberto Cola (Silver) to Bronze
Juan Manuel Correa (Silver)
Duarte Costa (Bronze)
Michael Crees (Silver to Bronze)
Charles Crews (Bronze to Silver)
Fabrizio del Monte (Silver to Bronze)
Leonardo maria de Vecchio (Silver to Bronze)
Mike de Tandt (Silver)
Grant Denyer (Silver to Bronze)
Jannes Fittje (Silver)
Ken Fukuds (Silver to Bronze)
Tony Gilham (Silver to Bronze)
James Gue (Silver to Bronze)
Charlie Hayes (Silver to Bronze)
Tyler Hoffman (Silver to Bronze)
Romain Ianetta (Silver to Bronze)
Drake Kemper (Bronze)
Robbie Kerr (Gold to Silver)
Anders Krohn (Bronze)
Lennart Marioneck (Silver to Bronze)
Gonzalo Martin de Andres (Silver to Bronze)
Nicolas Metairie (Bronze)
Bruno Mendez (Gold to Silver)
Josh Pierson (Silver)
Benjamin Ricci (Silver)
Giorgio Roda (Silver to Bronze)
Kevin Rohrsheidt (Silver to Bronze
Memo Rojas (Gold to Silver)
Nico Rondet (Silver to Bronze)
Louis Rossi (Bronze)
David Schumacher (Silver)
Alex Waters (Bronze)
Robert Wickens (Gold to Silver)
