FIA Considering Talks to Merge GTE and GT3

"AntiSpeed" (AntiSpeed)
07/12/2016 at 12:16 • Filed to: None

Fewer classes is always a good thing. Why is sports car racing always multi-class, multi-driver, and always associated with endurance racing? I want a Formula 1 style GT sprint championship where each car has only one driver, and the driver is as big a star as the car.

I think it could be extremely successful.

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DISCUSSION (10)

tromoly > AntiSpeed
07/12/2016 at 13:22

So you want the FIA GT1 Championship, which only lasted 3 years and folded in 2012? There may be a reason it only lasted 3 years and folded in 2012.

Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius > AntiSpeed
07/12/2016 at 13:34

I wonder if they would ‘downgrade’ GTE into GT3 spec because they want to make enough head room for GT1 to come back. GT3 certainly keeps cost down, but in my opinion, it doesn’t give the OEs the freedom to innovate and really make the unique qualities of their products shine. Ford GT, a mid-engine Corvette, the turbo 488, a mid-enginer 911 all speak to a something other and greater than the current GT3 series. I really think GT1 is where OEs should play and GT3 is for private teams.

The trouble with the FIA GT1 program of a few years ago is it was private teams, but in a higher level of trim. It was GT3 with bigger engines.

As for sprints versus enduro, I would like to see FIA do the sprints and WEC do the enduro. Calendars could be coordinated and teams could bounce back and forth as their budgets and their commitments can handle.

Wheelerguy > AntiSpeed
07/12/2016 at 13:44

Incoming drivel;

I’m a bit... apprehensive? It would be amazing to see One GT class to Rule Them All, and an FIA One GT will have the most enviable calendar ever if they do it right, but man it’s going to be difficult to keep all marques in line (road car first, race car second, plus watching out for spending wars) while still keeping one consistent spec to benefit true privateers and C-list regional teams (the lifeblood of GT), without ending up with almost exactly the same kind of car. Keeping convergence in check is the next hard job, I think. The loveliest part of GT is that there are cars representing and fighting different streetcar tiers (super-sport, super-exotic, super-touring), but there will come a point when marques find out the Perfect Recipe and run with it for two years as a thinly-veiled LMP1.5 with little homologation. GT1 in 1996-99 was good fun, except for the surprising homogeneity and rising costs.

And, no, I don’t think the F1 model would do GT justice. Sprint races are neat, mind you, but GT isn’t one for a “one driver, one car” system.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > AntiSpeed
07/12/2016 at 14:05

No, no, no, no, no, had idea. Both gt3 and gte (formerly GT2) are as strong as they have ever been. They need to use this to build GT like prototype is. Set up GTE as the manufacturers playground for the high tech cars and replace GTE Am with GT3 to create a lower cost class for the am drivers. By merging them together you will lose the manufacturers as you try to cost cap it and lose the ams as it inevitably becomes too expensive. Keep everything the way it is (though stop Porsche from building a racecar with a fundamental layout difference from the car it is based on as that’s a slippery slope) and just replace gte am with gt3 to recreate the class difference.

AntiSpeed > Wheelerguy
07/12/2016 at 14:21

“but GT isn’t one for a “one driver, one car” system.”

Why not, other than that’s how it’s always been done?

burntartichoke > AntiSpeed
07/12/2016 at 14:32

Why not just watch BTCC, WTCC, Aussie V8s or DTM? Those are all pretty much what you describe. One driver to one car, sprint championship and lots of argy bargy racing. FIA needs to leave GTE and GT3 alone as they are doing fine. It would be like thinking lets combine P1 and F1 as they are both high down force hybrid racecars; lets make some combined rules and have them run together.

190octane > AntiSpeed
07/12/2016 at 19:25

This is the idea that I have and you all can tell me why I’m crazy and it won’t work.

Instead of having BOP which is annoying, why not just have a set of regulations that car makers can build a road car to, and let them have at it. Things like minimum and maximum weight for instance. The car has to be completely stock and street legal except for interior (roll bar, harnesses, racing seat and what not) and maybe some front aero changes. You have to SELL and not just build 100 or 500 or 1000 (whichever is most realistic for a car like this).

This way they can’t get too far out with shit because the cars will still need to be sold and they will have to be at a price point where someone will buy it. It would be great advertising because you will basically be able to get essentially the same car at the dealership. If you want to turbo charge or super charge or just have huge displacement, it’s all good. RWD, FWD, AWD... would be fine also, innovation galore!

Wheelerguy > AntiSpeed
07/13/2016 at 00:03

No, no, I mean, the concept of “star driver with a star car” runs counter to what GT currently is.

AntiSpeed > Wheelerguy
07/13/2016 at 00:59

Oh, well I would agree with that. But I don’t think that’s how it should be done. I envision something like rounding up all the F1 refugees that are currently in Formula E, and putting them in whatever GTE/GT3 class they make, and promoting the drivers as an extension of the manufacturer, the same way many NASCAR drivers are associated with a brand. Reasonably well-known and well-respected drivers combined with the marketing might of these massive auto manufacturers could be quite powerful. Then eventually the series gets so popular that teams can fund themselves by sponsorship that wants in on the massive audience.

IMO the reasons this has never happened, in no particular order, are because 1. the class structure is horrendously confusing 2. having multiple drivers per car is weird for races less than 3 hours 3. any time one of these championships get a whiff of popularity, auto manufacturers spend it into oblivion before the audience size has a chance to support it and 4. Bernie Ecclestone/FIA collusion to kill off anything that could threaten Formula 1.

Wheelerguy > AntiSpeed
07/13/2016 at 01:21

See, see, this is the better idea. I approve.

IMO the reason[s] this has never happened: Bernie Ecclestone/FIA collusion to kill off anything that could threaten Formula 1.

Simple. Spin them off. There’s a way to make GT become a separate entity, but that’s paperwork for another day.