Ratel Says “Ambitious” Calendar Behind Drop in Grid Numbers

SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO Stephane Ratel has admitted that an increase in costs driven by an “ambitious” calendar is behind the drop in grid numbers for this year’s GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS.

Having operated largely capacity grids for the majority of the past two seasons, the championship has seen a sharp decline in entries for the opening two rounds of its calendar at Sepang in Malaysia and Mandalika in Indonesia.

The Sepang round attracted 23 cars, ten fewer than the equivalent race in 2025, while 22 cars contested the Mandalika event, down from 34 last year.

Making up the remainder of this year’s schedule are visits to Fuji, Okayama, Beijing, and Shanghai, moved from June to the end of the year, while the Suzuka 1000km round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge in September is a standalone event.

The relative inaccessibility of venues like Mandalika and Okayama, as well as an increase in paid testing, is believed to have contributed to the lower number of cars.

Ratel says that creating a more “affordable” calendar for 2027 is now his eponymous organization’s focus, admitting that the post-pandemic surge in entries led the championship to become “overconfident” regarding costs.

“First of all, we were extremely fortunate post-COVID to have this surge of cars,” Ratel told Sportscar365. “It’s clear that the market has developed in China. 

“We are a pan-Asian series and there is maybe a tendency of the Japanese to stay [closer] to home, the Chinese to stay [closer] to home. Maybe also, we were a bit ambitious and our calendar got a bit expensive. 

“When you have full success and full grids, you think you can go everywhere and do everything, so we went to Indonesia, the we had a calendar where we went to China, then to Japan, then back to China. I think that probably has been a bit of a mistake.

“Also we’ve done the Suzuka 1000km and the [GTWC Asia] calendar didn’t have a race in Suzuka anymore. Many of the teams have done Suzuka in addition to their program, so you have the six races plus Suzuka, which most teams have done, plus Indonesia, which is quite a lot more expensive, plus going to China twice. 

“I think we have been a bit too overconfident on the teams’ budgets. Like everything in motorsport, it’s always down to money. Now we have to come back to a more affordable calendar. That’s our priority for next year.

“We’ll keep the six races, at least, but [we want] to have a more affordable calendar.”

Asked if the Suzuka 1000km could become a points-paying round of the series, Ratel replied: “It’s one of the options we’re looking at to reduce costs.

“It’s definitely for the teams that do both, it would be less [expensive]. But the teams that don’t do both, then you force them to do a more expensive race.

“That’s the debate we are having at the moment.”

Ratel Acknowledges Rise of China GT as GTWC Asia Rival

Another factor that Ratel acknowledges has had an impact on GTWC Asia’s grid sizes this season is the rise of China GT, which attracted a strong contingent of 28 GT3 cars and a number of international drivers for its opening round in Shanghai in April.

Among the significant names from overseas that took part in the Shanghai race were Mercedes-AMG DTM regular Tom Kalender, Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Selected Driver Enzo Trulli, Samantha Tan, Lorenzo Patrese and Ollie Millroy.

The most recent round at Ningbo meanwhile attracted 24 GT3s.

“The Chinese learn fast,” Ratel said. “When we arrived in GT racing, you had Asian teams led by European [expats] like Absolute Racing. 

“At some point, we’ve started having purely Chinese teams that do very well and then you have a Chinese promoter that does very well. It’s good. I’m always happy to see GT3 and GT4 racing succeeding globally.

“Now, OK, they’ve been a big attraction because of a big, big Chinese movie star [Wang Yibo] has come to China GT, which has brought tremendous attention with the public and everything, and the championship got off the ground.

“Since we had about 75 percent of the [GTWC Asia] grid that were Chinese, it’s understandable. You will always have people that will say they want to do an international championship and some say they prefer to stay at home.

“For the moment, we still have a very decent grid.”

John Dagys contributed to this report