We didn’t have to wait the end of 2018 to see changes in the 2019 Blancpain GT Series calendar, with Zandvoort being the joker in SRO’s hands as the circuit returns to the schedule while other tweaks affect some of the already confirmed venues.
The Dutch circuit isn’t exactly new to the Blancpain GT scene as it was in the calendar from 2013 to 2015, and it also isn’t the first time that Zandvoort appears as a replacement of a previously confirmed venue, as the last Blancpain GT appearance in the Sprint Cup came as an emergency measure to the cancellation of the Baku World Challenge as a season finale in 2015.
This time the trip to Netherlands will replace what was expected to be a debut event at the Red Bull Ring, which also came with a date change for it. The Red Bull Ring weekend was expected for late May, but with logistics constraints due to the closeness to the Paul Ricard 1000 Endurance Cup race, Zandvoort replaced the Austrian round and was placed on July 13th and 14th, after the Misano round and the test days for the 24 Hours of Spa, for which the Paul Ricard 1000 serves as a good preparation.
The other change in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe calendar sees Nürburgring reestablished in the sprint calendar after a proposed switch with Barcelona inheriting it while the German venue would be the Endurance Cup finale. As the Nürbugring round of the Endurance Cup would have a clash with the FIA WEC, where a certain number of Blancpain GT drivers compete, so a sprint race weekend would have a minor effect in the matter.
Also announced is the prohibition of in season tests, starting in 2019, which will be replaced by the inclusion of more collective test days, with sessions set to be before the Monza and Barcelona Endurance Cup rounds and with two GT World Challenge Europe venues to be included.
PHOTO: SRO
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