2010 Abu Dhabi GT1 World Championship (April 16 - 17)

[LTSmash]

The new format of the FIA GT1 World Championship begins this weekend at the Yas Marina Circuit. I'll try to catch the race online in their live TV section of the website; you can too by going toFIA GT1 World Championship - Official Site

In case you did not know, they have changed the race format a little. The field of cars will only consist of GT1 spec racers; GT2 will have their own separate series in 2011. Also the endurance race format has been thrown out. Instead, it will follow a two-race format similar to the WTCC. Races are designed to be an hour in length requiring one pit-stop and driver change. Points’ scoring has also been changed to follow that of the F1 World Championship.

Six manufacturers in a 24 car grid are contending this season with raced out versions of the Nissan GTR, Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Maserati MC12, Aston Martin DB9, Ford GT, and Lamborghini Murcielago.

I'm not sure what to think about the new two-race format. GT racing has always spoken endurance to me. The theory behind the shorter races is to make the series more television friendly instead of having these long, drawn out enduros to attract a younger audience; I guess all the young, hip kids have ADD (in my mind there seems to be risks attached to obtaining a dominant base of young viewers by bastardizing the series to make it cool for the kids who aren't true enthusiasts). The other purpose of the two-race format is to keep the field more close together in a shorter time span.

I guess we'll see if the new format is worth any fuss. Race 1 (quali race) is 4/17 13:00 GMT and Race 2 (championship race) is 4/17 16:45 GMT.

[Kitdy]

What will be interesting to see is if the GT1 WC survives next season - the ACO have all but stated GT1 is dead. Ratel may find his new series dead before it gets the chance to blossom.

[LTSmash]

What will be interesting to see is if the GT1 WC survives next season - the ACO have all but stated GT1 is dead. Ratel may find his new series dead before it gets the chance to blossom.

It was cost which was the ultimate demise of the "old GT1," correct? Which ultimately lead to teams dropping out, which subsequently lead to less interest in GT1 from a viewer’s perspective.

This time around there are six manufacturers and 12 teams committed to the schedule. With that and the shorter races it seems that there may be enough diversity to maintain interest. Or is the ACO the gold standard of what series will survive and what series will die in GT racing? The ACO doesn't really support these shorter sprint type races so that may in fact keep the current FIA GT1 teams from participating in ACO events.

Maybe the FIA is trying to take away some GT racing viewership from the ACO. I guess only time will tell to see if this "new" series takes off.

[Kitdy]

Manufacturers may be drawn more to GT2 where all the action seems to be happening these days. Porsche, Chevrolet, BMW, Ferrari, and other more minor parties are all battling it out.

I'm not sure how involved manufacturers are in GT1 other than Nissan/Nismo.

I want to see the GT1 WC races and see how good the product is. I am not much of a fan of endurance racing anyways (outside the big races, Sebring, Le Mans, Nürburgring, etc) so the short races are a plus for me.

Without strong manufacturer backing, and with the winds of change pushing towards GT2, I wonder if GT1 will survive. If GT1 dies at Le Mans, which it looks as though it will, and no teams from the GT1 WC get invites from the ACO to contest the big race, will it continue? If I had to guess, I would say the GT1 WC will be short lived.

FIA GT2 may be in serious trouble, with many former competitors leaving for the LMS and GT Open as far as I know. Will they return when the championship starts again next season? Will it even get off the ground?

[LTSmash]

If GT1 dies at Le Mans, which it looks as though it will, and no teams from the GT1 WC get invites from the ACO to contest the big race, will it continue?

You're probably spot on there. Whether Le Mans sponsors GT1 will most likely be the deciding factor if it stays around or not.

On a side note, I wish this first race wasn't at the Yas Marina Circuit. These modern cookie-cutter tracks that are being shamelessly built non-stop are taking away from the more historic and old-school tracks which have some nostalgic value. Season opener should have been at a classic or established track like Magny-Cours or Interlagos.

[Kitdy]

On a side note, I wish this first race wasn't at the Yas Marina Circuit. These modern cookie-cutter tracks that are being shamelessly built non-stop are taking away from the more historic and old-school tracks which have some nostalgic value. Season opener should have been at a classic or established track like Magny-Cours or Interlagos.

Also, there will be no crowd.

In Qatar for the MotoGP round, there was less than 8,000 fans.

I know Qatar ain't the UAE, but still, it seems to show that the middle east isn't really interested in motorsports.

[f6fhellcat13]

There might not be many, though I'm not sure about that, but the ones that there are sure are rolling in dough. Thus motorsport organizations fellate them.

[Kitdy]

There might not be many, though I'm not sure about that, but the ones that there are sure are rolling in dough. Thus motorsport organizations fellate them.

You don't hear the word fellate used in that context nearly enough.

[LeonOfTheDead]

I actually can't see the problem.
The ACO welcomed the new set of rules for 2010 and beyond, and these rules attracted 3 new manufacturers, Nissan, Lamborghini and Ford. While Ford has little to do with this project which is indeed run by Matech, Reiter is running the Murcielago as basically the racing arm of Lamborghini, for which they already developed the previous and unsuccessful Murcielago R-GT, the winning Gallardo GT3, the yet to be raced Gallardo GT2 and also the Gallardo SuperTrofeo. Nissan is officially the only official manufacturer.

Unfortunately next year both Aston Martin and Maserati will be out for sure because the homologation of both cars will expire. Actually the MC12 was homologated until the end of 2009, but was accepted upon modifications.

Don't know if the Corvette C6 has the papers for next year as well.

Perhaps you guys are getting this feeling that GT2 is the new top class because in ALMS there isn't GT1 anymore, but over here in Europe GT2 is still seen as the second class, the one you go after only if you have little to spend or you have a little team. The Corvette GT2 is yet to be seen this side of the ocean.

What I actually believe is that GT1 is slowly evolving in something closer to the present GT2, while GT3 is gaining more and more entries, and could eventually take the place of GT2. A true downsizing, if you like. Of course GT4 is looking more and more like GT3 when it started, and it's getting too much interest from manufacturers to keep staying this small. Same goes with GT3, too many entries from too many big spending companies. As of 2008 iirc only Lamborghini had a purpose built car trough Reiter, while in 2009 you had Porsche, Alpina, Ferrari (last part of the season, trough Kessel Racing), Audi and even Morgan developing a purpose built car.
Matech was already there, but without a consistent backing from Ford.

So I'm definitely looking forward for this first round of GT1. Not sure if the new format is my cup of tea, I'm with John, GT racing smells like endurance to me. When I was watching some races last year, I was still interested despite the two hours of racing, possibly because even in apparently uneventful races there still were slower cars (GT2), punctures and small accidents. On the other hand shorter races should avoid certain cars being too carefull in managing the races thinking about the long distance, and having also more races (2x) will require them to be always on the top as there will be more points available each time.

I was interest in last year championship where there were only two cars fighting for the title, and 2/3 cars in the GT1 class (MC12, C6.R and occasionally one or two S7s), this year can be only better, and for as regards 2011, 3 manufaturers and no less than 12 cars are still a good prospective. They could still re-merge it with GT2 if there are too few participants.

I guess it's time to reanimate again the blog to broadcast the action!

[LTSmash]

Perhaps you guys are getting this feeling that GT2 is the new top class because in ALMS there isn't GT1 anymore, but over here in Europe GT2 is still seen as the second class, the one you go after only if you have little to spend or you have a little team. The Corvette GT2 is yet to be seen this side of the ocean.

It must only be the FIA GT keeping GT1 alive then because it's surely going away in the LMS; what was it, a lone S7 at Paul Ricard? And then you have Le Mans with only 7 or 8 entries this year (most of which have nothing to do with the FIA GT.). I would like to see the old GT1 stay alive back when you have strong support like the 550, C5/6, and DBR9; those were just beasts of machines. If GT1 became the new GT2 then the higher level of modification to ordinary road cars would dissipate and that would be a sad outcome (unfortunately I think you are right in that aspect).

They've messed up all the names up here in the States and Canada. For TV purposes I believe they merged LMP1 and LMP2 and just called it LMP. GT2 is just GT now. You would think they could just stay along the lines of the ACO naming.

I guess it's time to reanimate again the blog to broadcast the action!

About time, it's been nearly a month. I was beginning to think you just closed shop and gave up.

[LeonOfTheDead]

I just checked the entry list for Le Mans.
Larbre is the lonely team who raced the first round of the LMS.
The other cars that aren't involved in FIA GT are Luc Aphand's and JLOC.

First of all JLOC should have been "banned" after the poor appearance last year. It was clear that they knew the car wouldn't have completed the race as it wasn't even fitted with the luminescent number panel, or was that the three circular lights to show if the car is in the top 3 position of its class. This year they won the Asian LMS, composed of a single event (2 races), still I'm skeptical about them.

Luc Aphand's last year competed in FIA GT the last part of the year, and I bet that if it wasn't for the truck's accident (burned to the ground, lost a car and almost all the spare parts, were then helped by another team) they could have even showed at mroe rounds or with two cars.

Thing is this year we have 8 cars, half of which taking also part to the whole FIA GT championship, while last year I think it was just 6 or 5.

For as regards LMS, there should be more teams in the coming events, besides this has always been the less prolific series for as regards GT1 cars, not enough ads coming out of the events to justify it, and it's pretty obvious since you have more than a championship dedicated to GT cars (well, only one champ featuring to GT1 cars as all national champs moved towards GT2 and GT3).

Even if this new approach with lower costs and therefore less mods allowed sounds like bad news, I think it's the right step not only to keep GT1 alive but also to strengthen its position.
It already happened at the end of the nineties when too many official entries spoiled the whole deal, mainly because of the Mercedes CLK if you like. Surely we won't see the top class of Le Mans designed around GT regulations anytime soon, but I'm fine with that.

The blog isn't closed at all, I never managed to write something that I liked. I'm still going after a (long) selection of shots from Geneva, so there is a lot of stuff coming next, just I don't know precisely when .

I'd definitely broadcast the GT races (if I manage to get the right timing).

[Wouter Melissen]

The ACO have stated that GT2 is the future of GT racing and they underlined that by adding the class to the Intercontinental Cup. Currently Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, Corvette, Jaguar, Spyker, Aston Martin and Doran/Ford are involved in GT2. The only manufacturer somewhat serious about GT1 is Nissan. You do the math.

[Wouter Melissen]

It's live here: GT1 TV - FIA GT1 World Championship - Official Site

[Ferrer]

Thanks for the link.

[LeonOfTheDead]

The ACO have stated that GT2 is the future of GT racing and they underlined that by adding the class to the Intercontinental Cup. Currently Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, Corvette, Jaguar, Spyker, Aston Martin and Doran/Ford are involved in GT2. The only manufacturer somewhat serious about GT1 is Nissan. You do the math.

You still have Matech and Reiter though, albeit not heavily present as Nissan is.
I honestly don't care if the cars are called GT1 or GT2, at the moment having previous years cars strongly limited is a bit of a nonsense from a technical point of view. They could have just promoted GT2 to the first category somehow as they did in 1999 or 2000, can't remember.

Regarding the accident happened in the first qualifying race, driver has a broken leg, and the cameraman got the camera on his nose, but other than that he is fine.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRwtsjh91fQ]YouTube - FIA-GT1 2010 at Abu Dhabi Massive Crash for Natacha Gachnang[/ame]

EDIT: I'm a bit confused about the time schedule, the championship race is listed at 16:45, but it should actually start at 16:00, local timing that is. Any idea why?