Asian LMS Expansion Had “Negative Impact” on Gulf Grid

The Asian Le Mans Series’ decision to expand its calendar by adding a double header event in Sepang had a negative impact on the grid size for this year’s Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours, according to Driving Force Events director Andrea Ficarelli.

The 2023 event of the Abu Dhabi event, the final under the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli banner before it reverts to a Pro-Am format in 2024, published a final, 28-car grid earlier this week.

That number, which has since dropped to 26 with the withdrawal of entries from Kessel Racing and Baron Motorsport, sits in stark contrast to the 81 GT3 cars that were named as part of an initial pre-entry list in August.

That number was always likely to decrease as the grid size was capped at 36 due to the Yas Marina Circuit’s garage capacity, with Ficarelli saying he ‘expected a drop’ as the final entry was put being put together.

“We just went out saying how many teams really had the interest of working with us and to enter cars,” he said.

When adressing the topic of why the event failed to reach the maximum number of 36 cars, Ficarelli cited an ‘unpredictable market’ while also saying the introduction of a December Asian Le Mans round had an impact.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACO-organized series ran with a compact, four-race schedule at Dubai Autodrome and Yas Marina Circuit taking place in February.

This changed for the 2023-24 season, when a new, double-header event at Sepang International Circuit was added to the calendar in early December.

“Teams, they want to come, and we have had cases of teams telling us we come with three cars,” Ficarelli said.

“Then they said we come with two, and then we come with one, and then we don’t come. Very simply because they didn’t manage to sell the program as they were expecting.

“Probably also the fact that when it was finally the time of reaching the decision point, Sepang with the Asian Le Mans Series had a negative impact on us.

“This can be, we have made this study of how many teams we have lost. Not lost, because we don’t know if they will come here. But teams that last year, they were here and they went to Sepang.

“[These] were people that expressed interest for coming here. So there was a moment that maybe you said you expressed interest for two events, and then you have to decide for one.”

Last year’s event attracted 34 entries, of which just four came from the GT Cup class for Porsche Carrera Cup machinery, which is not present this year.

The decrease in GT3 entries appears to primarily have had an effect on the event’s Pro category, which slimmed down from ten cars in 2022 to five entries for this year.

Of the teams that left, three (Sainteloc Racing, Attempto Racing and GetSpeed Performance) had GT3 entries on the grid at Sepang earlier this month.

In contrast, 2022 winners AF Corse did drop out of the top class, but has retains a significant presence on the Gulf 12H grid with Pro-Am and Am entries.

“So the trend, from this perspective, it’s not a positive one in terms of total number of cars, let’s say,” said Ficarelli.

“Even if I have to say, just to open a parenthesis, that we did very well considering that we are in technical conflict of dates with two other events.

“One is Asian Le Mans Series in Sepang, I think it was 23 GT3 cars, and the other is the 12H Kuwait, three cars. It’s higher than the other number, so I think somehow we won, from this point of view.”

Traditional Race Format to Return in Potentially Tweaked Guise

Ficarelli also confirmed that the Gulf 12H is set to return to its traditional race format next year, which will see the race broken up into two segments with a break in between.

This format was scrapped when the race became an IGTC round for the first time in 2022, with this year’s race also running for 12 uninterrupted hours on Sunday.

As part of a number of changes that will be implemented as the Yas Marina race returns to a Pro-Am event, the break will again be implemented while Porsche Cup machinery, last included in 2022, also returns.

“We will go back to our traditional format of having a break,” Ficarelli said.

“And we want to focus again on the market for Porsche Cup cars. Because GT3 and Porsche Cup are exactly the things we need.”

Ficarelli also revealed that Driving Force is evaluating a new style to the format, which would no longer see the race broken up into two equal segments.

“In terms of race length, the idea at the moment, which is not official, is to do a split eight plus four to give more importance to the first eight hours.

“[This will] allow us to have the start of the second part in the dark, which is a completely different atmosphere. It’s something special.”