GT Masters Reschedules Oschersleben Round to October

The opening round of this year’s ADAC GT Masters has been rearranged to the end of the season in light of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The German national championship’s traditional Oschersleben curtain-raiser, which was originally scheduled for April 24-26, will now take place on October 23-25.

GT Masters confirmed the date shift on Monday, amid increasing precautionary measures to contain the spread of the virus in Europe.

Oschersleben is located in the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, which has banned all indoor events and closed all of its schools.

Additionally, the German national government, on advice from the Robert Koch Institute, has recommended that members of the public avoid events of more than 1,000 people.

The GT Masters season is now scheduled to begin at Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic on May 15-17, followed by a visit to the Red Bull Ring in Austria on June 5-7.

According to the series, the status of these two rounds will be decided “at a later date” and that alternative weekends are being considered for both should the situation change.

The new October date for Oschersleben puts it on the same weekend as three other major GT3 competitions: the FIA Motorsport Games at Paul Ricard, the NLS season finale at the Nürburgring and the International GT Open round at Barcelona.

Oschersleben was also due to host the official GT Masters pre-season test on April 6-8, but this has now been cancelled.

The postponement of the circuit’s race weekend also delays the season-openers for ADAC GT4 Germany, ADAC Formula 4 and ADAC TCR Germany.