SRO Press Conference Notebook

Photo: Patrick Hecq/SRO

***SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO Stephane Ratel confirmed that its deal with Jeddah, which will close out the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season, is a multi-year contract that will “evolve into something else” in the future.

***When asked by Sportscar365 if Jeddah could expand into a round of Intercontinental GT Challenge, Ratel declined to confirm such prospects. He said it’s “not on the cards” of it becoming a fifth round of the globe-trotting GT3 series next year.

***Ratel said the Jeddah round will be cheaper for teams than a European round, thanks to “a lot of subsidies” given by SRO and local authorities. “I will announce it to the teams and they will be very happy,” he said. “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 GTWC Europe with all the trucks, and we take GT4 as well.”

***The announcement of Jeddah is understood to have come as a surprise to a number of longtime GTWC Europe entrants.

***Discussions are set to take place between manufacturers on the possibility of a fifth IGTC round, to join Bathurst, Nürburgring, Spa and Indianapolis in 2024. Ratel said that if it materializes, it would be on a different continent to the already confirmed four events.

***He said: “I have to discuss with the manufacturers. Now, with this announcement, who is interested? And are they happy with four events or do they want one more? If they want one more, which would be their favorite?”

***When asked about Kyalami and Suzuka potentially rejoining the calendar, Ratel said: “I want to go back to Kyalami. I want to go back to Suzuka. Don’t get me wrong. It’s just that, for the moment, we have four confirmed and I need to see what the manufacturers and teams want to do. [It will be] no more than five. [It will be] four or five.”

***Pirelli will not be the presenting sponsor of IGTC next year, owing to the fact that the Nürburgring 24 will remain an open tire race in SP9. Ratel confirmed Pirelli will remain the exclusive tire provider for all other rounds.

***While the addition of the Nürburgring 24 to the IGTC calendar goes against the series’ ethos of having one race per continent and each at a different race length, Ratel said the prospects of placing another existing high-profile endurance race on the calendar outweighs the original concept. “The origin of the idea was fantastic, but I think it’s good that we put the biggest races [on the schedule],” he said.

***IGTC drivers who do not have the mandatory ‘A Permit’ to compete in the N24 will be required to complete the process to race, while at least one car from each GT3 manufacturer will be required to take part in at least two pre-N24 races as well as the N24 Qualifiers to be eligible for the German endurance classic.

***Ratel confirmed to Sportscar365 that GT2 will have its own class at the Nürburgring 24 next year. It will follow this year’s race, where a pair of Mercedes-AMG GT2s were entered in the SP-X category.

***N24 race director Walter Hornung said that the event’s recent date change was in direct response to a clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship’s race at Spa-Francorchamps and was not prompted by its inclusion on the IGTC calendar.

***GT2 cars could be included in next year’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa if Ratel is able to get a “minimum of six to eight” cars. When asked if GT2 could end up becoming a full-time class in IGTC next year, Ratel said it would be “too early” for that to happen, indicating that it could take until 2026 to see full grids in the platform.

***He said: “You don’t have enough cars; they’re slow to being delivered. It’s still in infancy. Mercedes, we will go to the next round and they would have delivered in Europe three cars. Maserati will be one at Valencia and another one at Paul Ricard, so we don’t have the cars yet.”

***GTWC Europe and GTWC Asia will switch to 100 percent renewable fuel from TotalEnergies beginning next year. The fuel is understood to be similar to what’s already used in the FIA World Endurance Championship from the same supplier.

***Nicolas Fumex of TotalEnergies said: “TotalEnergies is deeply engaged in the energy transition. Among the majors, we are very happy to be recognized as he most engaged in that deep change for industry. One of our main aims to support all our partners through their own transition.”

***Ratel revealed that it delayed the timing of the press conference by one day to Saturday to have one extra day to “try to scramble and finalize” its calendars worldwide. “Our teams ask us not to clash with WEC and DTM, and DTM doesn’t want to clash with WEC. Trying to do the math, it becomes an almost impossible exercise,” he said.

***The exact dates for the 2024 GTWC Asia schedule has yet to be finalized, although was confirmed as a six-round calendar kicking off in Sepang in April before stops at Buriram in May, Fuji in June, Suzuka in July, Okayama in August and a to-be-determined venue in China in October.

***Ratel did not present details on GTWC Australia, stating that the 2024 calendar hasn’t been confirmed yet and they have “a couple of things to resolve there” without going into further detail.

***SRO’s contract, for the first time, to co-organize the FIA GT World Cup, has been done as a three-year deal, which Ratel said has given flexibility in long-term planning for the famed street race in Macau, which will return as a World Cup event on Nov. 16-19 this year.

***The launch of SRO’s GTX World Tour has been pushed back to 2025, with a planned event around the Targa Florio for the all-electric series, which is in the process of finalizing its regulations with involvement from seven manufacturers.

Daniel Lloyd & Davey Euwema contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John