GT World Challenge Europe

GT World Challenge Europe (known as the Blancpain GT Series between 2014 and 2019) 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 features grand tourer racing cars modified from production road cars complying with the FIA's GT3 regulations.

GT World Challenge Europe
CategoryGrand tourer
Endurance racing
CountryInternational
Inaugural season2014
Tyre suppliersPirelli (2014–)
Drivers' champion Andrea Caldarelli
Marco Mapelli
Teams' champion Orange1 FFF Racing Team
Official websitewww.gt-world-challenge-europe.com
Current season

History

The series is divided into two separate championships, the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup and the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. Although the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup (then the Blancpain Endurance Series) has been organised since 2011, the inaugural season of the Blancpain GT Series was 2014, because in that year the FIA GT Series became the Blancpain Sprint Series, which is now the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup. The series was primarily sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Blancpain.

After developing their partnership, Blancpain and the SRO have decided that 2016 will see both the Sprint and Endurance Series further integrated into the Blancpain GT Series, putting the emphasis on the prestigious overall drivers' and manufacturers' titles, and causing the Sprint Series name to change from Blancpain Sprint Series to Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup and the Endurance Series name to change from Blancpain Endurance Series to Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup.[1]

In 2019, SRO Group announced that their sponsorship agreement with Blancpain had come to an end, this resulted in the Blancpain GT Series being renamed the GT World Challenge Europe with the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe being renamed the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup and Sprint Cup respectively.

Champions

Drivers
Year Overall Silver Cup Pro-Am Cup Am Cup
2014 Laurens Vanthoor Not held Not awarded
2015 Robin Frijns
2016 Dominik Baumann
Maximilian Buhk		 Michał Broniszewski Claudio Sdanewitsch
2017 Mirko Bortolotti
Christian Engelhart		 Alexander Mattschull David Perel
2018 Raffaele Marciello Nico Bastian
Jack Manchester		 Nyls Stievenart
Markus Winkelhock		 Adrian Amstutz
Leo Machitski
2019 Andrea Caldarelli
Marco Mapelli		 Nico Bastian Andrea Bertolini
Louis Machiels		 Not awarded

Teams
Year Overall Silver Cup Pro-Am Cup Am Cup
2014 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Not held Not awarded
2015 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT
2016 (AMG - Team) HTP Motorsport Kessel Racing AF Corse/Kaspersky Motorsport
2017 GRT Grasser Racing Team Rinaldi Racing Kessel Racing
2018 (Mercedes-AMG Team) AKKA ASP / SMP Racing by AKKA ASP Not awarded Saintéloc Racing Barwell Motorsport
2019 Orange1 FFF Racing Team AKKA ASP Team AF Corse Not awarded

See also
  • Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup
  • Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe

References
  1. "About Blancpain GT Series". Blancpain GT Series. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
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