SRO Motorsports strongly opposes the single GT class proposed by the ACO and FIA for 2014

SRO Motorsports strongly opposes the single GT class proposed by the ACO and FIA for 2014

SRO motorsports’ Founder and CEO, Stephane Ratel, has played a central role in GT racing since the category’s revival in the mid-nineties and strongly opposes the proposition of a single GT class as proposed by the ACO and the FIA on the following grounds:

1)      Need for stability: FIA GT3, one of the most successful and fastest growing categories in Motorsport, the only one ever to bring 14 different makes to a single class, with models developed and sold by the manufacturers or their official tuners. They should not be disturbed by the need to rescue the ACO GTE category which has never enjoyed anywhere near the success of GT3.

2)      GT racing, which brings together the World’s most prestigious manufacturers and brands, should not be considered a subcategory to prototype cars and deserves, like most other major categories, different steps of development. This should correspond to the variable levels of teams and manufacturers involvement. There is as much a need for two categories in GT racing as there is in prototypes where LMP2 cars run alongside LMP1 entries.

3)      The actual distribution between ACO GTE and FIA GT3 clearly corresponds to two different needs within the market. Any attempts to merge them will go against the interest of the teams and manufacturers competing in each category:

a.      It will tarnish the technical competition in GTE by further introducing a balance of performance concept already rejected by a number of Manufacturers when it comes to factory supported racing.

b.      It will raise the cost in GT3 and render some of the models uncompetitive by reducing the extent of modifications applicable to the original road going model.

As a result, the new category will not answer the objectives because the manufacturers producing the most competitive road going GT cars will also want to compete under strict technical regulations while reducing the chance of the less race adapted GT production car to run competitively.

        To the contrary, SRO Motorsports proposes:

1)      To preserve the FIA GT3 concept of ‘balance of performance’ and extended wavers to allow a large variety of GT cars to be competitive regardless of their original weight or shape.

To keep GT3 costs at an affordable level by controlling the increase of performance through a strict limitation to year-on-year developments. 

2)      To launch a new FIA GT2 category based on strict technical rules, with limited wavers and ‘balance of performance’ limited to success ballast. A category where GT manufacturers will prove through competition they can produce the best road going GT car.

Strict production requirements would be maintained to avoid a potential drift towards GT1/GTP.

Should such a new FIA GT2 category be introduced, SRO Motorsports will consider running it in the Pro Category of its International Series in 2014.

SRO Press.