GT World Challenge Europe

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GT World Challenge Europe
CategoryGrand tourer
Endurance racing
CountryInternational
Inaugural season2014
Tyre suppliersPirelli (2014–present)
Drivers' championRussia Timur Boguslavskiy
Switzerland Raffaele Marciello
Teams' championFrance AKKodis ASP Team
Official websitewww.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.

History[edit]

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.

Circuits[edit]

  • Bold denotes a circuit will be used in the 2023 season.
  • Italic denotes a future circuit will be used in the 2024 season.
Number Circuits Rounds Endurance Rounds and Years Sprint Rounds and Years
1 France Circuit Paul Ricard 10 10 (2014–present) 0
Belgium Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps 10 10 (2014–present) 0
Germany Nürburgring 10[a] 7 (2014–2016, 2019–2021, 2023–present) 3 (2016–2018)
4 United Kingdom Brands Hatch 9 0 9 (2014–2019, 2021–present)
Italy Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli 9 0 9 (2015–present)
6 Italy Monza Circuit 8 8 (2014–2019, 2021, 2023–present) 0
Spain Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya 8 6 (2017–2019, 2021–2023) 2 (2016, 2020, 2024)
8 Netherlands Circuit Zandvoort 7 0 7 (2014–2015, 2019–2023)
9 United Kingdom Silverstone Circuit 6 6 (2014–2019) 0
10 Belgium Circuit Zolder 4 0 4 (2014–2015, 2017–2018)
Hungary Hungaroring 4 0 4 (2016–2019)
12 France Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours 3 0 3 (2020–2022, 2024)
Spain Circuit Ricardo Tormo 3 0 3 (2021–2023)
14 France Circuit Paul Armagnac 2 0 2 (2014–2015)
Portugal Algarve International Circuit 2 0 2 (2014–2015)
Italy Imola Circuit 2 2 (2020, 2022) 0
Germany Hockenheimring 2 1 (2022) 1 (2023–present)
18 Slovakia Automotodróm Slovakia Ring 1 0 1 (2014)
Azerbaijan Baku World Challenge 1 0 1 (2014)
Russia Moscow Raceway 1 0 1 (2015)
21 Saudi Arabia Jeddah Corniche Circuit 0 0 (2024) 0

Champions[edit]

Drivers[edit]

Year Overall Silver Cup Pro-Am Cup Am Cup Gold Cup Bronze Cup
2014 Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
2015 Netherlands Robin Frijns
2016 Austria Dominik Baumann
Germany Maximilian Buhk
Poland Michał Broniszewski Germany Claudio Sdanewitsch
2017 Italy Mirko Bortolotti
Germany Christian Engelhart
Germany Alexander Mattschull South Africa David Perel
2018 Italy Raffaele Marciello Germany Nico Bastian
United Kingdom Jack Manchester
France Nyls Stievenart
Germany Markus Winkelhock
Switzerland Adrian Amstutz
Russia Leo Machitski
2019 Italy Andrea Caldarelli
Italy Marco Mapelli
Germany Nico Bastian Italy Andrea Bertolini
Belgium Louis Machiels
2020 Russia Timur Boguslavskiy Argentina Ezequiel Pérez Companc United Kingdom Chris Froggatt
Italy Edward Cheever
2021 Belgium Dries Vanthoor
Belgium Charles Weerts
Switzerland Alex Fontana Portugal Henrique Chaves
Portugal Miguel Ramos
2022 Switzerland Raffaele Marciello Denmark Benjamin Goethe
France Thomas Neubauer
Portugal Miguel Ramos
2023 Russia Timur Boguslavskiy
Switzerland Raffaele Marciello
Germany Alex Aka
Italy Lorenzo Patrese
Switzerland Alex Fontana
Switzerland Ivan Jacoma
Switzerland Nicolas Leutwiler
Germany Niklas Krütten
Australia Calan Williams
United Kingdom Alex Malykhin

Teams[edit]

Year Overall Silver Cup Pro-Am Cup Am Cup Gold Cup Bronze Cup
2014 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT
2015 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT
2016 Germany (AMG - Team) HTP Motorsport Switzerland Kessel Racing Italy AF Corse/Kaspersky Motorsport
2017 Austria GRT Grasser Racing Team Germany Rinaldi Racing Switzerland Kessel Racing
2018 France (Mercedes-AMG Team) AKKA ASP / Russia SMP Racing by AKKA ASP France Saintéloc Racing United Kingdom Barwell Motorsport
2019 China Orange1 FFF Racing Team France AKKA ASP Team Italy AF Corse
2020 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Argentina Madpanda Motorsport United Kingdom Sky - Tempesta Racing
2021 Belgium Team WRT Switzerland Emil Frey Racing United Kingdom Barwell Motorsport
2022 France AKKodis ASP Team Belgium Team WRT Italy AF Corse
2023 France AKKodis ASP Team Germany Tresor Attempto Racing Germany Car Collection Motorsport Belgium Boutsen VDS Lithuania Pure Rxcing

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Nürburgring hosted both endurance and sprint rounds in 2016.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "About Blancpain GT Series". Blancpain GT Series. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2016.

External links[edit]