Monza Replaces Imola on Next Year’s Endurance Cup Schedule

Monza will return to the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup schedule next year, while the other nine venues remain unchanged.

Announced on Friday during its annual press conference, series organizer SRO Motorsports Group confirmed a ten-round schedule for 2023 with five events split evenly between the Endurance Cup and Sprint Cup.

The main adjustment is the return of Monza to the season-opening slot for the long-distance series, after Imola opened this year’s campaign.

SRO founder and CEO Stephane Ratel said that it was decided to return to the Italian Grand Prix venue following consultation with the GTWC Europe teams.

The Monza event will take place on April 15-16, and will be followed by a visit to Paul Ricard on June 3-4.

“We made a survey and asked the teams, ‘Which track would you like to go to that you are not going to currently?’ Ratel told Sportscar365.

“For the majority, the number one was Monza. They wanted to go back to Monza. Don’t ask me why, but they wanted it.”

The 75th edition of the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa has been set for the weekend of July 29-30, in the traditional date slot for the Belgian enduro.

Hockenheim, which is due to host its first Endurance Cup race later this year, will host the fourth Endurance Cup round in September 2023. The season is due to end at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on the final weekend of the same month.

The GTWC Europe Sprint Cup calendar features the same five venues as the current season, with Brands Hatch opening the campaign on April 29-30.

Magny-Cours follows in the middle of May, followed by Zandvoort in June and Misano in early July.

Valencia will continue as the venue for the season finale for a third consecutive year as a mid-September fixture, one week before the Endurance Cup decider at Barcelona.

2023 GTWC Europe schedule

March 7-9 – test days at Paul Ricard
April 15-16 – 3 Hours of Monza (Endurance)
April 29-30 – Brands Hatch (Sprint)
May 13-14 – Magny-Cours (Sprint)
June 3-4 – Paul Ricard 1000km (Endurance)
June 17-18 – Zandvoort (Sprint)
June 20-21- Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa test days
July 1-2 – Misano (Sprint)
July 28-30 – Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa (Endurance)
Sep. 2-3 – 3 Hours of Hockenheim (Endurance)
Sep. 16-17 – Valencia (Sprint)
Sep. 30-Oct. 1 – 3 Hours of Barcelona (Endurance)