Ratel Wants Joint Regulations With FIA for GTX World Tour

Photo: Audi

Stephane Ratel envisions having joint regulations with the FIA for his organization’s GTX World Tour, amid news of the FIA’s new ESV electric racing platform.

Announced last month, the entry-level set of regulations is intended for domestic and continental racing competitions with options for GT or four-door sports sedan coupes derived from production models.

The ESV regulations, which stands for Electric Sport Vehicles, would feature cars with a minimum power output of 300 kW (402 hp).

While not initially listing SRO Motorsports Group as being involved in the project, Ratel told reporters at the recent CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa that he’s been in discussions with the FIA to have a common set of regulations.

“We’re talking to them,” Ratel said. “We have set up our own regulations and we have sent it to all of the manufacturers around the table.

“The manufacturers that want it, then they will say, ‘We like this one, or we like that one or would like to mix’ and then we go back to FIA.

“The idea is to have a joint regulation with FIA.”

Ratel said they are currently in dialogue with seven different manufacturers on the GTX World Tour, which has been pushed back to a 2025 launch, with its first event being a revival of the Targa Florio.

“We have been working on it for more than two years, with Bernard Niclot on the technical side. We have a plan and are building a technical regulations,” Ratel said.

“Our project is well defined. We want to start in the fall of 2025, by reviving the legendary Targa Florio with elected vars and embark into a full program in 2026 with Asia, North America, Europe and the Targa Florio.

“We believe this is a very important step in the future of our company.”

When asked why the project, which was originally announced in 2019, has been delayed further to 2025, Ratel said:  “If the cars don’t exist, I can’t create them. It will work, mark my words. It will be fantastic.”

He explained that each event will feature a full program of hill climbs, rally stages, circuit racing and other elements such as an efficiency exposure.

Chris Reinke of Audi Sport customer racing, which is one of the manufacturers involved in the planning of the GTX World Tour, stressed the importance of having stable regulations across the board, something he said the FIA has not been able to yet achieve in this arena.

“It started with [Electric GT], I believe it was called, where we said, ‘Guys, it’s not the era of building spaceships. Nobody will do that prototype electric.’ It went anyway.

“Then we found with Stephane a very exciting format with us in the GTX World Tour. We’ve put the leading car [at Spa] two and a half years ago to go out and support (pictured above).

“Since we’ve given recce cars to the organizers to take routes through Europe to collect data. We’re working on regulations and stuff, so we’re really active to get this foundation via the SRO.

“In the meantime, FIA started to downscale their effort to this NGT thing, let’s call it, which was similar or getting close to GTX.

“Now these other set of regulations come out.

“For us with a new venture like that, we need stability. Therefore we clearly commit to GTX as per Stephane Ratel.

“But I also say it would be absolutely appreciated if we can have a sanctioning body that sanctions, for example, the safety situation on EV cars, that by FIA, so we have the logic in there.

“That would be, for me, the ideal scenario, that we end up really with one thing instead of doing this, this or this.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John