SRO Admits Multi-Tire Suzuka BoP Poses “Huge Challenge”

SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO Stephane Ratel admits the Balance of Performance for next year’s Suzuka 1000km round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge will be a “huge challenge” considering that both Dunlop and Pirelli tires will be used.

The field for next year’s IGTC season finale, which will also serve as points race for SUPER GT’s GT300 runners, will see cars split between next year’s in-development Dunlop GT300 tires and the off-the-shelf Pirelli rubber used by the IGTC.

A recent test for the 2027 Dunlops at Suzuka yielded a best lap time of 1:57.372, which was around one second up on the fastest lap set in qualifying for this year’s 1000km, a 1:58.455 recorded by Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Kaku Ohta.

The SRO plans to use data from both the GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS round at Suzuka and SUPER GT’s standalone event at the figure-of-eight venue to determine the BoP, as well as additional testing that will include Dunlop.

Ratel did not shy away from the difficult nature of the task of ensuring the balance is right, especially if wet weather spoils its plans to gather data.

“The first year will work,” Ratel told Sportscar365. “The second year will depend on the first year. If we suddenly have all of the non-Japanese teams in the back, or the Japanese teams in the back, it’s a huge challenge.

“We will need a bit of luck with the weather. But we’ve worked it in a way where you have a month before, you have the SUPER GT race. About a month before, you have the GT World Challenge Asia race. That’s the key element.

“Claude [Surmont, SRO technical director] will attend both. We’ll take it very seriously and we will see these tires in action.

“Not only testing, we will see the times, what the cars are doing with these tires in both championships before, and still in the hot Japanese [weather] season.

“What we don’t want is a fully rainy weekend on one of the two where we can’t see [the dry tire data] because rain tires are something else,” he said.

“Effectively if the 1000km is in pouring rain, that will be a question mark because the rain tires can have different performance.”

Ratels comments come amid the backdrop of several drivers and team figures raising concerns about how the gap between the two tires can be adequately covered.

Honda factory driver Ohta was among those to express skepticism, telling Sportscar365: “The tires are different so I expect that it’s going to be pretty difficult [to balance].

“I don’t want to see the GT300 cars dominate the race. I think the IGTC cars and the SUPER GT cars should be on an equal level.

“It’s a bit tricky. Even now, it’s hard to judge which car is the fastest and which car has the most potential. And also the tires, Dunlop knows this track well and they have been making super-great tires for SUPER GT. So let’s see.

“I expect that if SUPER GT cars dominate the race, then maybe there will be less IGTC cars coming the following year. So it wouldn’t be good for the event. I hope that every car can be equal and the organizers need to manage it perfectly.”

However, head of Mercedes-AMG customer racing Stefan Wendl suggested the brand’s experience of the Nürburgring 24, which features multi-make tire competition, shows it is possible for a BoP that works without a single tire to be achieved.

“BoP is always a point of discussion for some manufacturers,” Wendl told Sportscar365. “If you have then different tires it makes it not easy for the technicians at SRO. But it’s possible. In the Nürburgring 24 Hours, we have the tires on top of everything.

“At least there are valuable data from the previous years. Also, as far as I know, there are pre-events to Suzuka, SUPER GT and also a [test] with the mandatory [Dunlop] tires. Then with Pirelli there will be races up front where you hopefully get the proper read.”

While Dunlop will not develop specific tires for the Suzuka 1000km, GTA chairman Masaaki Bandoh suggested that the GTA could mandate the use of a harder compound in the interests of balance in his regular press conference at Sugo last month.

Bonus Points Set to Incentivize GT300 Team Participation

Bonus points could be implemented to act as an extra incentive for GT300 teams to participate in next year’s Suzuka 1000km, the GTA has revealed.

While the points allocation for the race has not yet been decided, a GTA spokesperson did not discount the possibility that GT300 teams could be given extra recompense for a race that is more than three times the distance of a regular SUPER GT round.

Additionally, while SUPER GT’s dropped scores points system would allow teams to skip the event, a system whereby total scores are calculated from the best seven of the eight regular rounds, plus the Suzuka 1000km, is also under consideration.

Remaining issues to be settled include pit stops, as SRO uses a minimum pit stop time of 78 seconds that is deemed hard for SUPER GT competitors to match, differing pit stop equipment and the use of telemetry, which is not a feature of SUPER GT.

Bandoh suggested in the press conference that GT300 teams would not be required to use telemetry and that their personnel would be based on the pit wall as usual.

He added: “There are also differences in the impact wrenches and refuelling hoses being used. Within that context, there are issues such as whether we can get out in 78 seconds [minimum pit stop time], so we need to discuss those points.”

SUPER GT runners will also be given their own classification and podium ceremony for the race separate from the IGTC competitors, it has been confirmed.

John Dagys contributed to this report