GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup

The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, formerly the FIA GT Series was sponsored by Blancpain from 2014 to 2019 where it was variously branded as the Blancpain Sprint Series in 2014 and 2015, the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup in 2016 to 2018, and the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe in 2019, is a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) with the approval of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship now exclusively races in Europe, but had in previous years visited other continents including Asia. The series continues the sprint format for GT-cars carried out by the defunct FIA GT1 World Championship.[1]

GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup
CategoryGrand tourer
CountryInternational
Inaugural season2013
Tyre suppliersPirelli
Drivers' champion Dries Vanthoor
Charles Weerts
Teams' champion Belgian Audi Club Team WRT
Official websitewww.gt-world-challenge-europe.com
Current season

Regulations

The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup is contested with GT3-spec cars. Each event consists of two races over a weekend with two drivers per car and a mandatory pit stop.

Races

The schedule of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup consists of races in Europe.

History

In 2013, the FIA GT Series was created after the demise of the FIA GT1 World Championship and the FIA GT3 European Championship. The series was supposed to form the FIA GT World Series in conjunction with the GT Endurance Series. This plan was abandoned before the start of the 2013 season.

The name of the FIA GT Series resembles the FIA GT Championship (1997-2009) that was known for its endurance races all over the world. Except for the mandatory driver changes, the two championships differ highly in sporting and technical regulations.

In 2014, the competition changed the name to the Sprint Series.[2]

in 2016 the SRO announced both the Sprint and Endurance Series integrated into the GT Series, putting the emphasis on the overall drivers' and manufacturers' titles causing the Sprint Series name to change from Sprint Series to GT Series Sprint Cup.[3]

On 25 May 2018, the SRO acquired promotional rights to the GT World Challenge America, a North American GT series sanctioned by the United States Auto Club. On 29 September 2018, the SRO changed the names of the GT Asia and Sprint Cup, to adopt the World Challenge name used in North America. The three series together will be known as the GT World Challenge, with each series adding their region to the series name (America, Asia, Europe).[4]

In 2019, SRO announced that sponsorship by Blancpain had come to an end. For 2020, the GT World Challenge Europe was renamed the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, with the GT Series and GT Series Endurance Cup being renamed the GT World Challenge Europe and GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup respectively.

Champions

Drivers
Year Pro Cup (2013–2015)
Overall (2016–)		 Silver Cup Pro-Am Trophy (2013–2015)
Pro-Am Cup (2016–)		 Gentlemen Trophy (2013)
Am Cup (2016–)
2013 Stéphane Ortelli
Laurens Vanthoor		 Not awarded Sergey Afanasyev
Andreas Simonsen		 Petr Charouz
Jan Stoviček
2014 Maximilian Götz Vincent Abril
Mateusz Lisowski		 Marc Basseng
Alessandro Latif		 Not awarded
2015 Vincent Abril
Maximilian Buhk		 Jules Szymkowiak Aleksey Karachev
2016 Enzo Ide Michele Beretta
Luca Stolz		 Michał Broniszewski
Giacomo Piccini		 Claudio Sdanewitsch
2017 Robin Frijns
Stuart Leonard		 Fabian Schiller
Jules Szymkowiak		 Daniel Keilwitz
Alexander Mattschull		 Stephen Earle
David Perel
2018 Raffaele Marciello
Michael Meadows		 Nico Bastian
Jack Manchester		 Nyls Stievenart
Markus Winkelhock		 Pierre Feligioni
Claude-Yves Gosselin
2019 Andrea Caldarelli
Marco Mapelli		 Nico Bastian
Thomas Neubauer		 Hiroshi Hamaguchi
Phil Keen		 Florian Scholze
Wolfgang Triller
2020 Dries Vanthoor
Charles Weerts		 Simon Gachet
Steven Palette		 Eddie Cheever
Chris Froggart		 Not awarded

Teams
Year Pro Cup (2013–2015)
Overall (2016–)		 Silver Cup Pro-Am Trophy (2013–2015)
Pro-Am Cup (2016–)		 Gentlemen Trophy (2013)
Am Cup (2016–)
2013 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Not awarded HTP Gravity Charouz HTP Gravity Charouz
2014 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Phoenix Racing Not awarded
2015 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Bentley Team HTP GT Russian Team
2016 Team WRT Not awarded Kessel Racing AF Corse
2017 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT HTP Motorsport Rinaldi Racing Kessel Racing
2018 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Not awarded Saintéloc Racing Boutsen Ginion Racing
2019 AKKA ASP Team AKKA ASP Team Orange1 FFF Racing Team HB Racing
2020 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Saintéloc Racing Sky - Tempesta Racing Not awarded

See also

References
  1. "FIA GT SERIES IS GO FOR 2013". gt1world.com. Stéphane Ratel Organisation. 2013-01-10. Archived from the original on 2013-01-13. Retrieved 2013-01-10.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-12-30. Retrieved 2013-12-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. "About Blancpain GT Series". Blancpain GT Series. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  4. "Stephane Ratel outlines exciting 2019 season plans for SRO Motorsports Group". blancpain-gt-series.com. SRO Motorsports Group. 29 September 2018. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
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