Category | Grand tourer Endurance racing |
---|---|
Country | International |
Inaugural season | 2014 |
Tyre suppliers | Pirelli (2014–present) |
Drivers' champion | Lucas Auer Maro Engel |
Teams' champion | Team WRT |
Official website | gt-world-challenge-europe.com |
Current season |
GT World Challenge Europe (known as the Blancpain GT Series between 2014 and 2019) is a sports car racing series organised by SRO Motorsports Group. It features grand tourer racing cars modified from production road cars complying with the FIA's GT3 regulations.
The series is divided into two separate championships, the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup and the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, with five weekends each for 2022. Each race meeting focuses on Sprint Cup OR Endurance Cup exclusively.
Although the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup (then the Blancpain Endurance Series) has been organised since 2011, the inaugural season of the Blancpain GT Series was 2014, because in that year the FIA GT Series became the Blancpain Sprint Series, which is now the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup. The series was primarily sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Blancpain.
After developing their partnership, Blancpain and the SRO have decided that 2016 will see both the Sprint and Endurance Series further integrated into the Blancpain GT Series, putting the emphasis on the prestigious overall drivers' and manufacturers' titles, and causing the Sprint Series name to change from Blancpain Sprint Series to Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup and the Endurance Series name to change from Blancpain Endurance Series to Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup. [1]
In 2019, SRO Group announced that their sponsorship agreement with Blancpain had come to an end, this resulted in the Blancpain GT Series being renamed the GT World Challenge Europe with the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe being renamed the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup and Sprint Cup respectively.
Number | Circuits | Rounds | Endurance Rounds and Years | Sprint Rounds and Years |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Circuit Paul Ricard | 11 | 11 (2014–present) | 0 |
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps | 11 | 11 (2014–present) | 0 | |
Nürburgring | 11 [a] | 8 (2014–2016, 2019–2021, 2023–present) | 3 (2016–2018) | |
4 | Brands Hatch | 10 | 0 | 10 (2014–2019, 2021–present) |
Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli | 10 | 0 | 10 (2015–present) | |
6 | Monza Circuit | 9 | 9 (2014–2019, 2021, 2023–present) | 0 |
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya | 9 | 6 (2017–2019, 2021–2023, 2025) | 3 (2016, 2020, 2024) | |
8 | Circuit Zandvoort | 7 | 0 | 7 (2014–2015, 2019–2023, 2025) |
9 | Silverstone Circuit | 6 | 6 (2014–2019) | 0 |
10 | Circuit Zolder | 4 | 0 | 4 (2014–2015, 2017–2018) |
Hungaroring | 4 | 0 | 4 (2016–2019) | |
12 | Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours | 3 | 0 | 3 (2020–2022, 2024–present) |
Circuit Ricardo Tormo | 3 | 0 | 3 (2021–2023, 2025) | |
Hockenheimring | 3 | 1 (2022) | 2 (2023–2024) | |
15 | Circuit Paul Armagnac | 2 | 0 | 2 (2014–2015) |
Algarve International Circuit | 2 | 0 | 2 (2014–2015) | |
Imola Circuit | 2 | 2 (2020, 2022) | 0 | |
18 | Automotodróm Slovakia Ring | 1 | 0 | 1 (2014) |
Baku World Challenge | 1 | 0 | 1 (2014) | |
Moscow Raceway | 1 | 0 | 1 (2015) | |
Jeddah Corniche Circuit | 1 | 1 (2024) | 0 |
Year | Overall | Silver Cup | Pro-Am Cup | Am Cup | Gold Cup | Bronze Cup |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Laurens Vanthoor | — | — | — | — | — |
2015 | Robin Frijns | |||||
2016 | Dominik Baumann Maximilian Buhk | Michał Broniszewski | Claudio Sdanewitsch | |||
2017 | Mirko Bortolotti Christian Engelhart | Alexander Mattschull | David Perel | |||
2018 | Raffaele Marciello | Nico Bastian Jack Manchester | Nyls Stievenart Markus Winkelhock | Adrian Amstutz Leo Machitski | ||
2019 | Andrea Caldarelli Marco Mapelli | Nico Bastian | Andrea Bertolini Louis Machiels | — | ||
2020 | Timur Boguslavskiy | Ezequiel Pérez Companc | Chris Froggatt Edward Cheever | |||
2021 | Dries Vanthoor Charles Weerts | Alex Fontana | Henrique Chaves Miguel Ramos | |||
2022 | Raffaele Marciello | Benjamin Goethe Thomas Neubauer | Miguel Ramos | |||
2023 | Timur Boguslavskiy Raffaele Marciello | Alex Aka Lorenzo Patrese | Alex Fontana Ivan Jacoma Nicolas Leutwiler | Niklas Krütten Calan Williams | Alex Malykhin | |
2024 | Lucas Auer Maro Engel | César Gazeau Aurélien Panis | — | Paul Evrard Gilles Magnus | Eddie Cheever III Jonathan Hui |
Year | Overall | Silver Cup | Pro-Am Cup | Am Cup | Gold Cup | Bronze Cup |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | — | — | — | — | — |
2015 | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | |||||
2016 | (AMG - Team) HTP Motorsport | Kessel Racing | AF Corse/Kaspersky Motorsport | |||
2017 | GRT Grasser Racing Team | Rinaldi Racing | Kessel Racing | |||
2018 | (Mercedes-AMG Team) AKKA ASP / SMP Racing by AKKA ASP | Saintéloc Racing | Barwell Motorsport | |||
2019 | Orange1 FFF Racing Team | AKKA ASP Team | AF Corse | — | ||
2020 | Belgian Audi Club Team WRT | Madpanda Motorsport | Sky - Tempesta Racing | |||
2021 | Team WRT | Emil Frey Racing | Barwell Motorsport | |||
2022 | AKKodis ASP Team | Team WRT | AF Corse | |||
2023 | AKKodis ASP Team | Tresor Attempto Racing | Car Collection Motorsport | Boutsen VDS | Pure Rxcing | |
2024 | Team WRT | Boutsen VDS | — | — | Saintéloc Racing | Rutronik Racing |
The GT World Challenge America is a North American auto racing series launched in 1990 by the Sports Car Club of America. It has been managed by the SRO Motorsports Group since 2018, and has been sanctioned by the United States Auto Club since 2017.
The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout the years has visited other continents including Asia and South America. At the end of 2009, the championship was replaced by the FIA GT1 World Championship, which morphed into the FIA GT Series for 2013.
SRO Motorsports Group is an international sporting organisation best known for promoting and running a variety of racing events and series, including the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, Intercontinental GT Challenge and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe.
Christopher Haase is a German professional racing driver. He currently competes in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with Audi customer team Tresor Attempto Racing. Among his most notable successes are winning the 2007 ADAC GT Masters title, triumphing alongside Christopher Mies in the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship, and taking home the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2012 and 2014. He also won the 24 Hours of Spa in 2017.
The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by SRO Motorsports Group and the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium (RACB) with approval from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It features grand tourer racing cars modified from production road cars complying with the FIA's GT3 regulations. The series's goal is to be an endurance racing championship for GT3 cars, similar to the FIA World Endurance Championship which were using GTE cars and Le Mans Prototypes. The series was primarily sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Blancpain, and the company's Lamborghini Super Trofeo series serve as support races. In 2019, SRO announced that their sponsorship deal with Blancpain had been discontinued and the series was renamed the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup for the 2020 season.
W Racing Team is a Belgian auto racing team founded in 2009 by engineer and former head of Volkswagen Motorsport René Verbist, racing driver Vincent Vosse, and entrepreneur Yves Weerts. Between 2010 and 2022 the team campaigned Audi R8 LMSs in several international sports car series. In 2010 the team won the Belcar Drivers' and Teams' Championships, while in 2011 they won the Spa 24 Hours. After winning multiple titles in various GT championships, WRT is considered to be one of the best teams worldwide in GT racing. In 2019 and 2020 WRT ran two Audi RS5 Turbo DTMs in the highly competitive DTM championship. In 2021 WRT added a full time LMP2 program, by entering an Oreca 07 in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series, and won the LMP2 class of the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans. From 2023 on WRT switched their partnership in GT racing from Audi to BMW and will run the BMW M4 GT3. The team will also run two factory backed BMW M Hybrid V8s in the FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar category from 2024.
Patric Niederhauser is a professional racing driver from Switzerland and a current Porsche factory driver.
The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup is a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) with the approval of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Born as the FIA GT Series in 2013, it was sponsored by Blancpain from 2014 to 2019, and was variously branded as the Blancpain Sprint Series in 2014 and 2015, the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup from 2016 to 2018, and the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe in 2019. In 2020, Amazon Web Services was named official presenter and the series was branded as "GT World Challenge Powered by AWS". Fanatec concurrently served as title sponsor between 2021 and 2024.
Group GT3, known technically as Cup Grand Touring Cars and commonly referred to as simply GT3, is a set of regulations maintained by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for grand tourer racing cars designed for use in various auto racing series throughout the world. The GT3 category was initially created in 2005 by the SRO Motorsports Group as a third rung in the ladder of grand touring motorsport, below the Group GT1 and Group GT2 categories which were utilized in the SRO's FIA GT Championship, and launched its own series in 2006 called the FIA GT3 European Championship. Since then, Group GT3 has expanded to become the de facto category for many national and international grand touring series, although some series modify the ruleset from the FIA standard. By 2013, nearly 20 automobile manufacturers have built or been represented with GT3 machines.
The 2016 GT Series Sprint Cup was the fourth season following on from the demise of the SRO Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, the third with the designation of Blancpain Sprint Series or Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup. After developing their partnership, Blancpain and the SRO decided that 2016 would see both the Sprint and Endurance Series further integrated into the Blancpain GT Series, putting the emphasis on the prestigious overall drivers' and manufacturers' titles causing the Sprint Series name to change from Blancpain Sprint Series to Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup.
The 2016 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup was the sixth season of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup. The season started on 24 April at Monza and ended on 18 September at the Nürburgring. The season featured five rounds, with each race lasting for a duration of three hours besides the 24 Hours of Spa and the 1000 km Paul Ricard events. After developing their partnership, Blancpain and the SRO decided that 2016 would see both the Sprint and Endurance Series further integrated into the Blancpain GT Series, putting the emphasis on the prestigious overall drivers' and manufacturers' titles causing the Endurance Series name to change from Blancpain Endurance Series to Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup.
The 2016 Blancpain GT Series was the third season of the Blancpain GT Series. The season started on 10 April in Misano and ended on 2 October in Barcelona. The season featured ten rounds, five Endurance Cup rounds and five Sprint Cup rounds.
The 2017 GT Series Sprint Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup, was the fifth season of the GT Series Sprint Cup following on from the demise of the SRO Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, the fourth with the designation of Blancpain Sprint Series or Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup.
The 2018 GT Series Sprint Cup was the sixth season of the GT Series Sprint Cup following on from the demise of the SRO Motorsports Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, the fifth with the seasons sponsored by Blancpain. The season began on 7 April at Zolder and ended on 16 September at the Nürburgring.
Maximilian Buhk is a retired German racing driver. He experienced considerable success racing for Mercedes-AMG in the GT3 scene, winning the 2012 FIA GT3 European Championship and 2013 Blancpain Endurance Series, before taking the 2015 Blancpain GT Sprint Series title as part of the Bentley factory lineup.
The 2019 GT World Challenge Europe was the seventh season of the GT World Challenge Europe following on from the demise of the SRO Motorsports Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, the first with the sponsorship of Blancpain. The season began on 4 May at Brands Hatch and ended on 8 September at the Hungaroring. It was the first season of the unification of GT3 sprint series across the globe under the World Challenge name.
The 2019 Blancpain GT World Challenge America was the 30th season of the United States Auto Club's Blancpain GT World Challenge America. It was the first under Blancpain sponsorship, taking over from the longtime Pirelli sponsorship, as part of the standardisation of names of Stéphane Ratel Organisation-run GT3 sprint racing series globally, following the series' acquisition by the SRO Motorsports Group. It was also the last under Blancpain sponsorship, after they and the SRO concluded their partnership at the end of 2019. The season began on 2 March in Austin and ended on 20 October at Las Vegas.
The 2020 GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup was the eighth season of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup following on from the demise of the SRO Motorsports Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, the first after title sponsor Blancpain withdrew sponsorship. The season began on 9 August at Misano World Circuit and finished on 11 October at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. This season the GT Sports Club Europe was brought into the GT World Challenge Europe, meaning the Bronze-focused GT3 and GT2 series shared grids with the headlining series.
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Stefano Costantini is an Italian amateur racing driver currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship with AF Corse. He is the reigning champion of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup in the Pro-Am class.