Zandvoort Return Amongst Blancpain GT Schedule Changes

Photo: Olivier Beroud/SRO

The Blancpain GT Series will return to Zandvoort next year, while the Sprint and Endurance Cup finales have been swapped around, SRO Motorsports Group revealed on Monday.

The Sprint Cup, which will also be called Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe, will visit Zandvoort for the first time since 2015 on July 12-14, replacing an originally scheduled round at the Red Bull Ring on May 24-26.

This has been changed to ease logistical pressure ahead of the Paul Ricard Endurance Cup race on May 31 – June 1, which was originally the weekend following the Austrian round.

While the location of the Endurance and Sprint Cup finales were planned to swap around, this has now been reversed, with Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hosting the Endurance finale with the last Sprint Cup round at the Nürburgring.

This will be the same as the 2018 schedule, while each circuit’s date has not been changed, meaning the Barcelona race will still take place on Sept. 28-29 and the Nürburgring round on Aug. 30 – Sept. 1.

The German race still clashes with the FIA World Endurance Championship opener at Silverstone but the clash is alleviated with it now being a Sprint Cup race.

Considerably more Endurance Cup drivers are expected to compete in the WEC race than Sprint Cup drivers.

These changes have also led to alterations for other series, with the GT4 European Series heading to Zandvoort instead of Barcelona, while the Championnat de France FFSA GT – GT4 France will now race at Ledenon one week earlier than stated, on July 5-7.

The Blancpain GT Sports Club round at the Hungaroring has been replaced with a return to Misano.

Blancpain GT Test Days Confirmed

A number of official test days for the Blancpain GT Series have also been confirmed, following the announcement last month that these would replace private in-season testing.

Teams will be able to run in an official test ahead of the Monza and Barcelona Endurance Cup rounds, while further dates ahead of Sprint Cup weekends will be announced later.

It comes in addition to the traditional two-day pre-season test at Paul Ricard and Spa test day ahead of the Total 24 Hours of Spa.

2019 Blancpain GT Series Schedule: (Revised)
April 13-14 — Monza (Endurance)
May 4-5 — Brands Hatch (Sprint)
May 11-12 — Silverstone (Endurance)
May 31- June 1 — Paul Ricard (Endurance)
June 28-30 — Misano (Sprint)
July 12-14 — Zandvoort (Sprint)
July 25-28 — Total 24 Hours of Spa (Endurance)
Aug. 30 – Sept. 1 — Nürburgring (Sprint)
Sept. 6-8 — Budapest (Sprint)
Sept. 28-29 — Barcelona (Endurance)

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.