GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup
CategoryGrand tourer
CountryInternational
Tyre suppliersPirelli
Drivers' championSan Marino Mattia Drudi
Switzerland Ricardo Feller
Teams' championGermany Tresor Orange1
Official websitewww.gt-world-challenge-europe.com
Current season

The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, officially known as Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS for sponsorship reasons, formerly the FIA GT Series, is a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) with the approval of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It was sponsored by Blancpain from 2014 to 2019, when 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. In 2020, AWS was named 'Official Presenter' and the series was branded as "GT World Challenge Powered by AWS". Fanatec later joined as title sponsor in 2021, giving the series its current name.

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]

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.

In 2020, SRO named AWS as the "official presenter" of the series,[5] and the series was branded as "GT World Challenge Powered by AWS". In 2021, Fanatec became the title sponsor of the series.[6] Giving the series its current name of "Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS".

Champions

Drivers

Year Pro Cup Silver Cup Pro-Am Trophy Gentlemen Trophy
2013 Monaco Stéphane Ortelli
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Not awarded Russia Sergey Afanasyev
Sweden Andreas Simonsen
Czech Republic Petr Charouz
Czech Republic Jan Stoviček
2014 Germany Maximilian Götz France Vincent Abril
Poland Mateusz Lisowski
Germany Marc Basseng
United Kingdom Alessandro Latif
Not awarded
2015 France Vincent Abril
Germany Maximilian Buhk
Netherlands Jules Szymkowiak Russia Aleksey Karachev
Year Overall Silver Cup Pro-Am Cup Am Cup
2016 Belgium Enzo Ide Italy Michele Beretta
Germany Luca Stolz
Poland Michał Broniszewski
Italy Giacomo Piccini
Germany Claudio Sdanewitsch
2017 Netherlands Robin Frijns
United Kingdom Stuart Leonard
Germany Fabian Schiller
Netherlands Jules Szymkowiak
Germany Daniel Keilwitz
Germany Alexander Mattschull
United States Stephen Earle
South Africa David Perel
2018 Italy Raffaele Marciello
United Kingdom Michael Meadows
Germany Nico Bastian
United Kingdom Jack Manchester
France Nyls Stievenart
Germany Markus Winkelhock
France Pierre Feligioni
France Claude-Yves Gosselin
2019 Italy Andrea Caldarelli
Italy Marco Mapelli
Germany Nico Bastian
France Thomas Neubauer
Japan Hiroshi Hamaguchi
United Kingdom Phil Keen
Germany Florian Scholze
Germany Wolfgang Triller
2020 Belgium Dries Vanthoor
Belgium Charles Weerts
France Simon Gachet
France Steven Palette
Italy Eddie Cheever
United Kingdom Chris Froggatt
Not awarded
2021 Belgium Dries Vanthoor
Belgium Charles Weerts
Switzerland Alex Fontana Portugal Henrique Chaves
Portugal Miguel Ramos
Not awarded
2022 Belgium Dries Vanthoor
Belgium Charles Weerts
France Pierre-Alexandre Jean
Belgium Ulysse De Pauw
Portugal Miguel Ramos
United Kingdom Dean Macdonald
Not awarded
Year Overall Gold Cup Silver Cup Bronze Cup
2023 San Marino Mattia Drudi
Switzerland Ricardo Feller
Germany Niklas Krütten
Australia Calan Williams
Australia Jordan Love United Kingdom Alex Malykhin

Teams

Year Pro Cup Silver Cup Pro-Am Trophy Gentlemen Trophy
2013 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Not awarded Czech Republic HTP Gravity Charouz Czech Republic HTP Gravity Charouz
2014 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Germany Phoenix Racing Not awarded
2015 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Germany Bentley Team HTP Russia GT Russian Team
Year Overall Silver Cup Pro-Am Cup Am Cup
2016 Belgium Team WRT Not awarded Switzerland Kessel Racing Italy AF Corse
2017 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Germany HTP Motorsport Germany Rinaldi Racing Switzerland Kessel Racing
2018 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Not awarded France Saintéloc Racing Belgium Boutsen Ginion Racing
2019 France AKKA ASP Team France AKKA ASP Team China Orange1 FFF Racing Team Austria HB Racing
2020 Belgium Belgian Audi Club Team WRT France Saintéloc Racing United Kingdom Sky - Tempesta Racing Not awarded
2021 Belgium Team WRT Switzerland Emil Frey Racing United Kingdom Barwell Motorsport Not awarded
2022 Belgium Team WRT Italy AF Corse Italy AF Corse Not awarded
Year Overall Gold Cup Silver Cup Bronze Cup
2023 Germany Tresor Orange1 Belgium Boutsen VDS Germany Haupt Racing Team Lithuania Pure Rxcing

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. "Official Site of Blancpain Endurance Series". Archived from the original on 2013-12-30. Retrieved 2013-12-30.
  3. "About Blancpain GT Series". Blancpain GT Series. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. 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.
  5. "SRO Motorsports Group names Amazon Web Services (AWS) official presenter of GT World Challenge". Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS. 2020-01-20. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  6. "Fanatec named title sponsor of GT World Challenge Powered by AWS and GT2 European Series". Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS. 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
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