Ratel Promises Subsidies for Teams Entering Jeddah 1000km

Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup boss Stephane Ratel has promised “a lot of subsidies” for teams entering next season’s Jeddah 1000km.

Ratel, whose SRO Motorsports Group body runs GTWC Europe, recently announced that the 3.8-mile Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia will host the 2024 season finale.

It will mark the first time that the Endurance Cup has been outside of Europe, but Ratel told reporters after the announcement that teams will be assured of manageable costs.

“We will give them a lot of subsidies,” he said.

“I will announce it to the teams and they will be very happy. It’s a very good deal. The fact that we go both in and out, it’s short, they don’t need to pack containers.

“They take their racing truck and go. You’ll have the full paddock like in GT World Challenge Europe with all the trucks, and we take GT4 as well.”

Ratel added that, due to the subsidies, it will cost no more for teams to take part in the Jeddah 1000km than it would for them to do an Endurance Cup round in Europe.

The current plan is for team trucks and cars to be loaded onto one vessel and sea-freighted from Europe to Saudi Arabia in a “roll-on, roll-off” fashion like the Dakar Rally.

Ratel projected that the sea-freight voyage will take around 12 days and said that air transportation will not be used due to its environmental impact.

Multiple GTWC Europe Endurance Cup competitors raised overseas logistics as a primary concern about the Jeddah race, which is replacing Barcelona as the season finale.

“It’s more a question of logistics,” said Akkodis ASP team principal Jerome Policand.

“When you send two cars at the end of the season, and you have a winter test plan, it could be tricky.”

Sainteloc Junior Team sporting director Frederic Thalamy added: “I always said that SRO had to do something in the Middle East during the winter. Why not? In the past, we went to Dubai with FIA GT3. If they help us with all the costs for the logistics, it’s no problem.

“But if all your stuff is locked for more or less two and a half months, this is also a problem. But let’s see what happens.”

According to Ratel, the long-term deal to introduce Jeddah to the Endurance Cup schedule was brought together recently.

GTWC Europe teams were surveyed about potential venues for the 2024 calendar at some point in the last two months but Jeddah was not one of the options, meaning the identity of the location came as a surprise to many competitors last weekend.

Alongside its planned travel subsidies, SRO intends to increase next year’s prize fund.

It’s believed that those benefits have been made possible through the agreement with the Saudi Arabian motorsport authorities, the SMC and the SAMF, although SRO has not confirmed this.

Further details of the logistical arrangements will be presented to teams at the 3 Hours of the Nürburgring Endurance Cup round later this month.

Team WRT team principal Vincent Vosse expressed support for the series adding an overseas round provided that spending remains reasonable for competitors.

“As long as the costs stay there and people want to go there, I’m not against it at all,” he told Sportscar365.

“It’s something new, something different. It’s right at the end of the year. Probably from there, we can go straight to [the Hankook 24H] Dubai with the materials and cars.

“Once you have all the calendars and you can see how we are traveling around for different championships and races… it seems to be good.”

Despite the promise of low costs, racing in Saudi Arabia takes GTWC Europe to a country that has come under scrutiny for its human rights record, including in the context of motorsport after Formula E and Formula 1 launched races there in the last five years.

But Ratel dismissed the potential for reservations about the GT3-based series heading to Saudi Arabia, saying: “Now, all of motorsport is going to Saudi. The country is definitely going into the right direction.”