Racing competitions of high caliber try to deal with tight schedules to make sure the rounds won't enter in conflict with another series, and this is where SRO was, having to promote a series of changes to the FANATEC GT World Challenge Europe calendar due to Formula 1 interference.
The whole deal happened with F1 trying to accommodate its 24 rounds, meaning that for the Belgian GP they basically selected the historic date of the 24 Hours of Spa, and with SRO not having the 29-30 July available anymore, The solution was to move to almost a month before, on 1-2 July, and as expected, the knock-on effect kicked in and SRO has to make amends.
First of them all, the Monza Endurance Cup opener is moved a weekend later, set for 23 April, while the Brands Hatch Sprint Cup is moved further two weeks to mid-May. Misano swaps places with Spa but is allocated in mid-July while the late July is reserved for the return of Nürburgring, acting as an Endurance Cup round instead of Hockenheim and replacing Magny-Cours in the calendar.
The remainder of the calendar remains almost unchanged, except for Zandvoort that acts again as the season ending, hosting the last Sprint Cup round in October. Along with the event at the second half of the season, only the Paul Ricard 1000 didn’t have a date change, but SRO doesn’t discard any further changes to the calendar if necessary, like what’s happening in GTWC Asia’s Sepang finale, which doesn’t have a set date to wait for the circuit’s schedule to be confirmed.
The official test days at Paul Ricard remain in the original dates, but the ones at Spa will be moved back in reaction to the rearrangement of the main event.
2023 FANATEC GT World Challenge Europe calendar:
23 April - Monza (Endurance)
13-14 May - Brands Hatch (Sprint)
4 June - Paul Ricard 1000 (Endurance)
1-2 July - Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa (Endurance)
15-16 July - Misano (Sprint)
30 July - Nürburgring (Endurance)
2-3 September - Hockenheim (Sprint)
16-17 September - Valencia (Sprint)
1 October - Barcelona (Endurance)
14-15 October - Zandvoort (Sprint)
Official Test Days:
7-8 March - Paul Ricard
23-24 - Spa-Francorchamps (24H of Spa)
PHOTO: SRO/Jules Beaumont
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