A story strand circulating over the past couple of weeks was that a potential programme is looming to resurrect GT1, featuring some of the halo brands and models from the current marketplace for road-going and/or track-focused cars of stratospheric performance levels.
The suggested involvement of the FIA in discussions with relevant manufacturers led DSC to seek clarification, and the answers to some polite questions have proved interesting.
Firstly, it is correct that there have been discussions, initially on an informal but structured basis, after requests from a small number of halo manufacturers to find a relevant regulatory framework that would allow them some form of certification for competition.
Importantly, so far as the FIA officials are concerned, that does NOT mean any eventual framework would see such cars competing in circuit racing. Instead, the intention, if discussions bore fruit, would be restricted to timed display and/or ‘Time-Attack’-style events.
DSC understands that the reference to GT1 is purely to give a recognisable reference point for the cars’ position in the marketplace. It’s certainly more useful, less confusing and less potentially inflammatory or indeed inaccurate than to refer to them as Hypercars in this context.
It is absolutely not, in any way, seen as being any part of the current racing ‘pyramid’, in no way related to either the current GT race products or indeed the current LMP and Hypercar ‘families’.
The proposal is also not linked directly to the SRO/Curbstone-organised GT Sports Club events that see road-registered and/or track-only ‘hypercars’ demonstrated at standalone events or during SRO race weekends.
Instead, the idea is understood to have emerged from initial contact, as far back as 2023, from a small number of manufacturers with FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem and a subsequent suggestion from the FIA President that those manufacturers and others should seek some form of formal framework.
Structured but informal discussions have followed to help FIA officials understand the ideas behind the approach, with those conversations progressing, albeit slowly, towards a consensus among the interested parties.
Whether those structured discussions have been matched completely with informal contacts at a company ownership level remains to be seen.
At least one manufacturer involved, GMA (Gordon Murray Automotive), is contacting customers to announce an increase in production of its recently announced S1 model from 64 to 75 to preserve the potential opportunity to develop the car for racing.
The letter confirms that Ben Sulayem has “given a mandate to his team to start a new racing class ‘GT1’, where the top-tier supercar manufacturers such as Gordon Murray, Koenigsegg, Pagani, and Bugatti could compete with race cars derived directly from their production vehicles.”
The letter continues saying that “A key eligibility requirement under the proposals being considered is a minimum production run of 75 road homologated cars.”
So, to that point, all seem in accord with what DSC has been told in background discussions. The letter, though, does go on to mention the prospect of the S1 “competing on the international stage, potentially including future endurance racing events”.
That goes far beyond the proposal we have been briefed on.
So is that a matter of wishful thinking on the part of a notoriously enthusiastic GMA ownership group, or is there an angle to this, with discussions perhaps having taken place under the heading of “if we can make this work, there are other future possibilities?
As things stand, there is no new class of GT1 circuit race cars; this is not at the core of Stephane Ratel’s current concerns about the trajectory of GT3, and there is no proposal to include any such cars within the current or future Le Mans Hypercar regulations.
But the question is: what have the manufacturers involved been told informally about the prospects of their cars in motorsport?
