GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup

GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup
Category	Grand tourer
Country	International
Tyre suppliers	Pirelli
Drivers' champion	Mattia Drudi; Ricardo Feller
Teams' champion	Tresor Orange1
Official website	www.gt-world-challenge-europe.com
	Current season

The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, officially known as Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS for sponsorship reasons, formerly the FIA GT Series, is a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) with the approval of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It was sponsored by Blancpain from 2014 to 2019, when it was variously branded as the Blancpain Sprint Series in 2014 and 2015, the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup in 2016 to 2018, and the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe in 2019. In 2020, AWS was named 'Official Presenter' and the series was branded as "GT World Challenge Powered by AWS". Fanatec later joined as title sponsor in 2021, giving the series its current name.

The championship now exclusively races in Europe, but had in previous years visited other continents, including Asia. The series continues the sprint format for GT-cars carried out by the defunct FIA GT1 World Championship.^[1]

Regulations

The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup is contested with GT3-spec cars. Each event consists of two races over a weekend with two drivers per car and a mandatory pit stop.

Races

The schedule of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup consists of races in Europe.

History

In 2013, the FIA GT Series was created after the demise of the FIA GT1 World Championship and the FIA GT3 European Championship. The series was supposed to form the FIA GT World Series in conjunction with the GT Endurance Series. This plan was abandoned before the start of the 2013 season.

The name of the FIA GT Series resembles the FIA GT Championship (1997-2009) that was known for its endurance races all over the world. Except for the mandatory driver changes, the two championships differ highly in sporting and technical regulations.

In 2014, the competition changed the name to the Sprint Series.^[2]

in 2016 the SRO announced both the Sprint and Endurance Series integrated into the GT Series, putting the emphasis on the overall drivers' and manufacturers' titles causing the Sprint Series name to change from Sprint Series to GT Series Sprint Cup.^[3]

On 25 May 2018, the SRO acquired promotional rights to the GT World Challenge America, a North American GT series sanctioned by the United States Auto Club. On 29 September 2018, the SRO changed the names of the GT Asia and Sprint Cup, to adopt the World Challenge name used in North America. The three series together will be known as the GT World Challenge, with each series adding their region to the series name (America, Asia, Europe).^[4]

In 2019, SRO announced that sponsorship by Blancpain had come to an end. For 2020, the GT World Challenge Europe was renamed the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, with the GT Series and GT Series Endurance Cup being renamed the GT World Challenge Europe and GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup respectively.

In 2020, SRO named AWS as the "official presenter" of the series,^[5] and the series was branded as "GT World Challenge Powered by AWS". In 2021, Fanatec became the title sponsor of the series.^[6] Giving the series its current name of "Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS".

Champions

Drivers

Year	Pro Cup	Silver Cup	Pro-Am Trophy	Gentlemen Trophy
2013	Stéphane Ortelli Laurens Vanthoor	Not awarded	Sergey Afanasyev Andreas Simonsen	Petr Charouz Jan Stoviček
2014	Maximilian Götz	Vincent Abril Mateusz Lisowski	Marc Basseng Alessandro Latif	Not awarded
2015	Vincent Abril Maximilian Buhk	Jules Szymkowiak	Aleksey Karachev	Not awarded
Year	Overall	Silver Cup	Pro-Am Cup	Am Cup
2016	Enzo Ide	Michele Beretta Luca Stolz	Michał Broniszewski Giacomo Piccini	Claudio Sdanewitsch
2017	Robin Frijns Stuart Leonard	Fabian Schiller Jules Szymkowiak	Daniel Keilwitz Alexander Mattschull	Stephen Earle David Perel
2018	Raffaele Marciello Michael Meadows	Nico Bastian Jack Manchester	Nyls Stievenart Markus Winkelhock	Pierre Feligioni Claude-Yves Gosselin
2019	Andrea Caldarelli Marco Mapelli	Nico Bastian Thomas Neubauer	Hiroshi Hamaguchi Phil Keen	Florian Scholze Wolfgang Triller
2020	Dries Vanthoor Charles Weerts	Simon Gachet Steven Palette	Eddie Cheever Chris Froggatt	Not awarded
2021	Dries Vanthoor Charles Weerts	Alex Fontana	Henrique Chaves Miguel Ramos	Not awarded
2022	Dries Vanthoor Charles Weerts	Pierre-Alexandre Jean Ulysse De Pauw	Miguel Ramos Dean Macdonald	Not awarded
Year	Overall	Gold Cup	Silver Cup	Bronze Cup
2023	Mattia Drudi Ricardo Feller	Niklas Krütten Calan Williams	Jordan Love	Alex Malykhin

Teams

Year	Pro Cup	Silver Cup	Pro-Am Trophy	Gentlemen Trophy
2013	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Not awarded	HTP Gravity Charouz	HTP Gravity Charouz
2014	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Phoenix Racing	Not awarded
2015	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Bentley Team HTP	GT Russian Team	Not awarded
Year	Overall	Silver Cup	Pro-Am Cup	Am Cup
2016	Team WRT	Not awarded	Kessel Racing	AF Corse
2017	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	HTP Motorsport	Rinaldi Racing	Kessel Racing
2018	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Not awarded	Saintéloc Racing	Boutsen Ginion Racing
2019	Mercedes-AMG Team AKKA ASP	AKKA ASP Team	Orange1 FFF Racing Team	HB Racing
2020	Belgian Audi Club Team WRT	Saintéloc Racing	Sky - Tempesta Racing	Not awarded
2021	Team WRT	Emil Frey Racing	Barwell Motorsport	Not awarded
2022	Team WRT	AF Corse	AF Corse	Not awarded
Year	Overall	Gold Cup	Silver Cup	Bronze Cup
2023	Tresor Orange1	Boutsen VDS	Haupt Racing Team	Pure Rxcing

References

^ "FIA GT SERIES IS GO FOR 2013". gt1world.com. Stéphane Ratel Organisation. 2013-01-10. Archived from the original on 2013-01-13. Retrieved 2013-01-10.
^ "Official Site of Blancpain Endurance Series". Archived from the original on 2013-12-30. Retrieved 2013-12-30.
^ "About Blancpain GT Series". Blancpain GT Series. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
^ "Stephane Ratel outlines exciting 2019 season plans for SRO Motorsports Group". blancpain-gt-series.com. SRO Motorsports Group. 29 September 2018. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
^ "SRO Motorsports Group names Amazon Web Services (AWS) official presenter of GT World Challenge". Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS. 2020-01-20. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
^ "Fanatec named title sponsor of GT World Challenge Powered by AWS and GT2 European Series". Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS. 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2022-07-10.

External links

The Official Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup Site

[GO2013-1] "FIA GT SERIES IS GO FOR 2013". gt1world.com. Stéphane Ratel Organisation. 2013-01-10. Archived from the original on 2013-01-13. Retrieved 2013-01-10.

[2] "Official Site of Blancpain Endurance Series". Archived from the original on 2013-12-30. Retrieved 2013-12-30.

[3] "About Blancpain GT Series". Blancpain GT Series. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2016.

[4] "Stephane Ratel outlines exciting 2019 season plans for SRO Motorsports Group". blancpain-gt-series.com. SRO Motorsports Group. 29 September 2018. Retrieved 5 October 2018.

[5] "SRO Motorsports Group names Amazon Web Services (AWS) official presenter of GT World Challenge". Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS. 2020-01-20. Retrieved 2022-07-10.

[6] "Fanatec named title sponsor of GT World Challenge Powered by AWS and GT2 European Series". Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS. 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2022-07-10.

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