FIA GT World Championship 2012

[amidst tundra]

A hillclimb and a street circuit that's almost too tight for bikes? Too much fantasy for me.

[Dead-Eye]

Originally Posted by amidst tundra

A hillclimb and a street circuit that's almost too tight for bikes? Too much fantasy for me.

There have been some pretty good GT3 races at Macau in recent years.

[Mt. Lynx]

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

I would like to have those races (except at Spa) for up to 2 hours and 30 minutes.

And as for the Isle of Man, I think it needs to be removed along with Goodwood and replace it with Interlagos or the Autódromo Hermanos RodrÃ*guez in Mexico.

I just wish the promoters could think a bit outside the box. Seriously, the GT3 cars are fairly versatile, and to not use that is just odd in my book. A hillclimb event, a time trial event, a tarmac rally in stages and an oval race would add alot to a world championship IMO.

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by Mt. Lynx

I just wish the promoters could think a bit outside the box. Seriously, the GT3 cars are fairly versatile, and to not use that is just odd in my book. A hillclimb event, a time trial event, a tarmac rally in stages and an oval race would add alot to a world championship IMO.

Not sure about the oval (except maybe for a really road course-ish one like Pocono or Indy), but a hillclimb would be seriously cool and if you (waive the sanction fee) and piggy back with an existing event you could have a pretty decent crowd built in right away.

I would definitely go for one of the really long ones, though, rather than something as short as Goodwood. Heck, why not go crazy and go up Alp d'Huez or something!

[kurski]

Originally Posted by amidst tundra

A hillclimb and a street circuit that's almost too tight for bikes? Too much fantasy for me.

It should be noted that I think the FIA GT1 calendar should be every year, one street circuit. 1997 was Helsinki Thunder and 2008 Bucharest City Challenge. Durban street circuit does not run in 2010.

[Dead-Eye]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

I would definitely go for one of the really long ones, though, rather than something as short as Goodwood. Heck, why not go crazy and go up Alp d'Huez or something!

Now that Pikes Peak is all tarmac...well

[I Rosputnik]

Reading this weeks autosport, Ratel is trying to merge the GT1 and GT3 grids again while Reiter would rather do GT1 rather then Blancpain (Too national based) or WEC (Too expensive).

I think a good move for GT1 would be to Piggyback on the WTCC calendar. The WTCC goes to five continents with it being relativity stable. Plus the two could help each other out.

[MagVanisher]

Originally Posted by I Rosputnik

Reading this weeks autosport, Ratel is trying to merge the GT1 and GT3 grids again while Reiter would rather do GT1 rather then Blancpain (Too national based) or WEC (Too expensive).

I think a good move for GT1 would be to Piggyback on the WTCC calendar. The WTCC goes to five continents with it being relativity stable. Plus the two could help each other out.

Looks like Mr. Ratel has no other choice but to merge both "GT1" and GT3 then... And with his series tagging along with WTCC, I guess they're a match made in heaven (or hell) for both series.

Still, if only he would ditch that stupid "1 team/brand, 2 cars" rule...

[KlBD]

Originally Posted by I Rosputnik

Reading this weeks autosport, Ratel is trying to merge the GT1 and GT3 grids again while Reiter would rather do GT1 rather then Blancpain (Too national based) or WEC (Too expensive).

I think a good move for GT1 would be to Piggyback on the WTCC calendar. The WTCC goes to five continents with it being relativity stable. Plus the two could help each other out.

This is not a bad idea at all given that the WTCC isn't in the best of health either. Perhaps placing the two together could be a boon for both series, as the overall health of racing series like these seem to be in a "we either hang together or hang separately" type of situation.

As for the comment regarding Reiter, I find it interesting that they believe Blancpain is too-national based. Does that mean they want to race/sell their cars outside of Europe?

If you merge GT1 and GT3, it wouldn't be such a bad thing - I always kind of figured if you had all the national level GT3 championships for local privateers, and then FIA GT/Blancpain as "league" level series incorporating the more successful/wealthy organizations from the national championships then it might work, but that would either require an across the board standardization of a single GT spec, or extremely limited instances of national homologations.

Edit: And as well, when you can't run national GT championships in every country due to lack of participants, the continental/intercontinental series (the FIA GT) would still provide an opportunity for teams without a national championship to compete, albeit on a more limited basis.

[Speed-King]

Ratel already was in bed with WTCC 10 years ago and it ended with a big of a falling out. I don't think that we'll see these two work together ever again.

[urdragon]

Reiter selling cars outside Europe? EEUU? I can't understand that move if Lamborghini/Blancpain(Full outfit like 2010) aren't involved.

If I understand correctly merging GT1 with GT3 means GT1 Am + GT1 Pro in the same grid, cause they run by now together in the same tracks. Then unless something strange (The cars are repeated) this means returning two teams per brand or an open format between 2 and 1 teams per brand (that last would be great for me).

[I Rosputnik]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Ratel already was in bed with WTCC 10 years ago and it ended with a big of a falling out. I don't think that we'll see these two work together ever again.

What happened?

Ah, I think he was meaning he viewed Blancpain as being a step down in difficultly rather than selling cars. (It was in this weeks Autosport, I've had a read of it, but I've not bought a copy. There is an article about the future of GT1 in it. Sorry if I've confused people here.)

[KlBD]

Originally Posted by I Rosputnik

What happened?

Ah, I think he was meaning he viewed Blancpain as being a step down in difficultly rather than selling cars. (It was in this weeks Autosport, I've had a read of it, but I've not bought a copy. There is an article about the future of GT1 in it. Sorry if I've confused people here.)

That makes a lot of sense considering Reiter doesn't really like to field all pro lineups for the sake of taking overall wins, and considering their reduced presence in Blancpain and ADAC GT this year compared to their GT1 efforts. Also it's not impossible for Reiter to be selling their cars outside of Europe, the LP560 and LP600+ have popped up in pretty healthy numbers in Brazil and Asia.

[urdragon]

Originally Posted by I Rosputnik

What happened?

Ah, I think he was meaning he viewed Blancpain as being a step down in difficultly rather than selling cars.

Hahaha, with this GT1 (of AM's) then Hayek wants to run GT1 then...

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by I Rosputnik

What happened?

Depends on who you ask.

FIA GT races back then were 3 hours, the touring car guys wanted to cut that down to 2 hours of 90 minutes - according to one version so that their VIP guests could have a quiet lunch break. Ratel wasn't into sprints back then and sick of playing second fiddle to shopping carts, and walked away from WTCC and being part of the Eurosport TV-package. Arguably one of his bigger mistakes.

[alexkiller8]

reiter point of view has a sense only if the world fia gt1 was REALLY a world fia gt1! they could have a great opportunity to promote their lambo if there was a chinese round where they could show the performance of the car. In this way maybe some team involved in the super taikyu could order a pair of lp600+ (as JLOC did last year)but now they have only russia as target market. I think that they aren't intersted to enter in WEC because they are not able to build and develope a competitive GTE car compared to ferrari, corvette, amr and porsche! in this way they will achieve the opposite goal of promotion...

[I Rosputnik]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Depends on who you ask.

FIA GT races back then were 3 hours, the touring car guys wanted to cut that down to 2 hours of 90 minutes - according to one version so that their VIP guests could have a quiet lunch break. Ratel wasn't into sprints back then and sick of playing second fiddle to shopping carts, and walked away from WTCC and being part of the Eurosport TV-package. Arguably one of his bigger mistakes.

Hmm... If only they could of worked things out together...

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

FIA GT races back then were 3 hours, the touring car guys wanted to cut that down to 2 hours of 90 minutes - according to one version so that their VIP guests could have a quiet lunch break. Ratel wasn't into sprints back then and sick of playing second fiddle to shopping carts, and walked away from WTCC and being part of the Eurosport TV-package. Arguably one of his bigger mistakes.

Which is kinda funny considering how they changed the format to 2 hours shortly after anyways...

But, even the 120 minute format was still more of an endurance than the 60+60 of today, plus of course the Spa 24 was part of the championship

[sukispeed]

I think they should a 60 minute race on Saturdays and a 120 race on Sundays.

[alexkiller8]

fia gt won't come back to the endurance format now that exist BES... BTW even if come back to an endurance format, this won't change a thing if important teams prefer to run in BES, VLN, ADAC GT or gtopen than fia gt1/3.

[urdragon]

Originally Posted by sukispeed

I think they should a 60 minute race on Saturdays and a 120 race on Sundays.

Good idea! This makes the sunday more similar to BES, for me a format better than 3h.

Originally Posted by alexkiller8

fia gt won't come back to the endurance format now that exist BES... BTW even if come back to an endurance format, this won't change a thing if important teams prefer to run in BES, VLN, ADAC GT or gtopen than fia gt1/3.

Then Ratel should limit the (Future) Pro presence in BES unless he want's to kill GT1, according to this year grid's a few GT1 teams will prefer cheaper BES, more expectation, easiest to manage with VLN/ADAC/GT OPEN...

[I Rosputnik]

Apparently we have now lost both Porsches... No Chinese races means Exim Bank has left and now Mühlner Motorsport are trying to make sense of it all.

Merge with GT3 Europe now?

[urdragon]

Ratel Magic, he must find teams, and rounds, all in less than a month, or the championship should be cancelled (Merging the GT3+GT1 means redoing all website at this time of the season).

Two weeks ago we knew the same, so Ratel is supposed to be doing something, cause he was the one that ordered two rounds in the same country, which was criticised here...

PS: I won't miss the Porsches if AM returns.

[I Rosputnik]

To be honest I find Ratel's determination to get something done rather admirable, but right now considering how the international motorsport scene seems to be fairing across all disciplines, I'm worried it is going to take something of a miracle for things to work out.

I think the best way for a stable calendar if there is a championship next year is to have the overseas races in countries that already have a local GT3 championship such as Brazil, Australia or Malaysia. This would mean they could get assistance from local organizers if need be and bring in local entries.

[PorscheFanNo1]

Originally Posted by I Rosputnik

To be honest I find Ratel's determination to get something done rather admirable,

Have to agree with that. Eventhough not everyone always agrees with his decitions I think its great that GT racing has someone like him that just doesnt give up but keeps trying to do great things.