GT World Challenge Europe

(Redirected from Blancpain GT Series)

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.

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

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

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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

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  • 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   Circuit Paul Ricard 10 10 (2014–present) 0
  Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps 10 10 (2014–present) 0
  Nürburgring 10[a] 7 (2014–2016, 2019–2021, 2023–present) 3 (2016–2018)
4   Brands Hatch 9 0 9 (2014–2019, 2021–present)
  Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli 9 0 9 (2015–present)
6   Monza Circuit 8 8 (2014–2019, 2021, 2023–present) 0
  Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya 8 6 (2017–2019, 2021–2023) 2 (2016, 2020, 2024)
8   Circuit Zandvoort 7 0 7 (2014–2015, 2019–2023)
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)
  Circuit Ricardo Tormo 3 0 3 (2021–2023)
14   Circuit Paul Armagnac 2 0 2 (2014–2015)
  Algarve International Circuit 2 0 2 (2014–2015)
  Imola Circuit 2 2 (2020, 2022) 0
  Hockenheimring 2 1 (2022) 1 (2023–present)
18   Automotodróm Slovakia Ring 1 0 1 (2014)
  Baku World Challenge 1 0 1 (2014)
  Moscow Raceway 1 0 1 (2015)
21   Jeddah Corniche Circuit 0 0 (2024) 0

Champions

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Drivers

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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

Teams

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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

See also

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Notes

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

References

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