Spa Friday Notebook

***Multiple announcements were made on Friday during SRO Motorsports Group’s annual press conference, including confirmation of the 2023 Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli schedule, the Gulf 12 Hours becoming this year’s IGTC season finale and calendars for both Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and GTWC America.

***Next year’s GTWC Australia calendar is due to be released in October while SRO has not yet outlined a date on when the 2023 GTWC Asia schedule will be confirmed.

***News also came through of SRO’s driver ratings system overhaul being approved by the FIA, which will see the revised structure used in sports car racing championships worldwide beginning next year.

***McLaren has launched a new single-make series that will support five GTWC Europe events next year. The McLaren Trophy will use McLaren Artura GT4s that have been freed from BoP regulations, with an increased output of 577 hp. The one-make car has been christened the Artura Trophy.

***A standalone GT4 Endurance Cup race will be held next year, with SRO and ADAC teaming up to organize the 6 Hours of Rome at Vallelunga on Oct. 28-29. It will mark the long-awaited first standalone SRO-organized endurance race for the GT4 platform.

***The GT1 Sports Club will visit the U.S. for the first time next year. The first leg of the non-competitive track day series for extreme hypercars will take place at Sonoma on April 1-2. It will then head to Spa-Francorchamps on July 22-23 and Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sep. 30-Oct. 1.

***Stephane Ratel has explained the reasoning behind the Feb. 24-25 date for next year’s Kyalami 9 Hour: “The most important is that Kyalami could be early enough for the teams to be able to be back in Europe, on time and safely because I think we have seven weeks [before the start of the GTWC Europe season].”

***Ratel downplayed the prospects of teams being able to sea-freight cars from the season-opening Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, which is set to occur three weeks earlier.

***Next year’s Kyalami race currently clashes with the season-opening GTWC America round at NOLA Motorsports Park, which could impact several American teams that were looking to take on the globe-trotting GT3 series full-time next year.

***Cars competing in SRO’s proposed GT2 Am class in IGTC next year will be run at the “highest BoP” level, which Ratel believes could see the platform achieve close times to GT3 machinery.

***As previously reported by Sportscar365, the use of biofuels in GTWC Europe is under consideration for 2023. SRO has reached 66 percent carbon neutrality this year, with teams set to contribute via a carbon calculator beginning in October.

***SRO launched the SunEnergy1 Team Sustainability Challenge for GTWC Europe next year, which will provide an end-of-season prize fund for teams based on a number of criteria. “We are going to start with one series and see how we can grow it,” Ratel told Sportscar365.

***A total of 80 nations are currently confirmed to participate in the Marseille FIA Motorsport Games, according to a presentation slide during the press conference. The event hopes to attract more than 1000 athletes representing their countries.

***Raffaele Marciello took the lead of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS overall drivers’ championship by finishing second in Friday’s Super Pole shootout. Marciello earned two points to overturn the half-point lead of Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts.

***Marciello, Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella also moved ahead of Iron Lynx’s Antonio Fuoco, Davide Rigon and Daniel Serra at the top of the Endurance Cup standings, with the Akkodis ASP crew’s one-point deficit turning into a two-point gain.

***Mercedes-AMG driver Marciello was denied a third consecutive TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa pole by Lamborghini ace Caldarelli, whose Super Pole time of 2:16.221 was a massive 1.728 seconds quicker than Marciello’s pole effort last year.

***The substantially lower lap times are primarily the result of resurfacing from Eau Rouge to the exit of Bruxelles. “We can clearly see that the performance is much higher than last year,” said Pirelli’s circuit racing activities manager Matteo Braga. “The energy you put in the corners is much higher.”

***Braga explained that the new Pirelli P Zero DHF tire is generally about six-tenths quicker per lap on average compared with the previous DHE model, however the track changes at Spa have made for a larger jump.

***Audi and Lamborghini teams have reduced the camber on their cars in an attempt to mitigate punctures. Audi Sport Team WRT, for instance, has reduced the camber by 10 percent, which it hopes will secure the tires over a stint at the expense of some pace.

***FFF Racing is “very unlikely” to return to GT3 competition next year, according to team principal Caldarelli. He instead stated he would “love to do” an additional year of Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe with the squad.

***Sim racing specialist James Baldwin won the third round of the Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series, earning five points for Garage 59’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Silver Cup teams’ tally. Baldwin, who is making his first real-world race appearance since 2020 this weekend, beat Pro winner Nicki Thiim by 15 seconds. Results / Standings

***Team WRT moved to 2.5 points ahead of Akkodis ASP in the GTWC Europe overall teams’ standings courtesy of Dries Vanthoor scoring one point for finishing fifth in the esports race Pro class. The points went as follows: Beechdean AMR (5), Iron Lynx (4), Tresor by Car Collection (3), ROWE Racing (2), WRT (1).

***In Silver Cup, the following teams’ points were scored: Garage 59 (5), Attempto Racing (4), Tresor by Car Collection (3), Haupt Racing Team (2) and Al Manar Racing by HRT (1).

***Ferrari’s 296 GT3 has completed roughly 8,000 kms already in on-track testing according to Ferdinando Cannizzo, head of Ferrari’s GT car track development. “We are around halfway of our development plan,” he said.

***Cannizzo ruled out seeing the new Ferrari at the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour next year, with no pre-homologation test races planned for the car and a full focus placed on its competition debut at January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona instead.

***It’s understood Porsche is set to take a similar path with its new 911 GT3 R regarding Bathurst, but pre-homologation races are on the cards. The car is set to be formally unveiled on Saturday morning in central Europe.

***EMA Motorsport could contest more European races later this year to supplement its Spa effort. A team spokesperson told Sportscar365 that no outings have currently been confirmed, but that the aim is to be ‘out before the end of the year again’.

***Manthey Racing is providing technical support to the EMA program, with about 80 percent of the crew coming from the renowned German Porsche squad.

***SunEnergy1 Racing will start from the pit lane after its operating team SPS Automotive Performance changed the engine of the No. 75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo after it was damaged in an incident during night practice.

***The No. 46 WRT Audi underwent an engine change without penalty on Thursday after the original expired during Free Practice.

***Compounding its situation, the No. 46 Audi received two five-place grid drop penalties after night practice. The first was for Valentino Rossi passing the CMR Bentley under yellow flags, while the second was for the same driver having accrued three behavior warning points this season.

***Rossi has previously been the last of the No. 46 Audi drivers to qualify, on the lightest fuel load, but he was placed in the first session on Thursday for the maximum amount of light during the evening. The Italian is less familiar with racing in darkness and is gearing up for his first 24H Spa.

***EBM Giga Racing was fined €5,000 ($5,096 USD) for a member of its team attempting to use a forged or replicated car pass to access one of the circuit’s central parking locations, according to an official bulletin.

***KCMG, which was already due to start near the back of the grid after a brake issue prevented it from filing three qualifying times, accepted a three-place grid drop after Laurens Vanthoor set an improved sector 1 time while yellow flags were waving at La Source during night practice.

***The same sanction for the same reason applied to the No. 21 AF Corse and No. 83 Iron Dames Ferraris from Gold Cup, which set the sixth and 10th best qualifying averages in class.

John Dagys and Davey Euwema contributed to this report