Silverstone Sets Scene for FIA GT3 Showdown

2011 marks the sixth year of the FIA GT3 European Championship which has continued to attract teams and drivers from across the world resulting in large grids and action packed racing.  Silverstone will feature Rounds 3 & 4 of the twelve race championship with thirty cars expected to take to the grid.

The FIA GT3 European Championship is for the latest generation of sportscar; with few modifications allowed from the road-going models, their performance is balanced using the techniques developed and proven in FIA GT and its successor the FIA GT1 World Championship. Each model should be represented by a minimum of 2 cars and a maximum of 6 cars, entered by two car teams.

Eight manufacturers will be represented on the grid in 2011, including the new Mercedes-Benz SLS and Ferrari 458, with cars from Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Ford, Lamborghini and Porsche.

The 2011 season got underway in Portugal last month with two 60-minute races on the 4.7km circuit on the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.  The opening race of the season was a BMW 1-2-3 with the Need for Speed Team Schubert Z4 of Edward Sandtroem and Abdulaziz Al Faisel taking the win ahead of their teammates Claudia Huertgen and Csaba Walter, with the Faster Racing by DB MOTORSPORT BMW Z4 of Jeroen den Boer and Hoevert Vos taking the final podium place on the Dutch teams FIA GT3 debut.

The podium for Round 2 was more representative of the diversity of manufacturers in the FIA GT3 European Championship with the Belgian Audi Club Audi R8 LMS of Enzo Ide and Greg Franchi taking advantage of an early pitstop during a Safety Car period to leap up the order to take the chequered flag ahead of the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Francesco Castellacci and Federico Leo and the Heico Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG of Brice Bosi and Dominik Baumann.

For 2011 the Prospeed Competition Porsche 911 GT3 R returns with 2011 GT3 Vice Champion Paul van Splunteren returning, partnered by Belgian driver Maxime Soulet in the car carrying, as reigning Team Champions, the all important ‘number 1’ on the door panels.  Prospeed will be running a second car in Portugal, the only team to be racing the championship winning Porsche.

The Need for Speed Schubert Motorsport team returns for a second season with the race winning BMW Z4 GT3, with an almost unchanged driver line up.  Claudia Huertgen and Csaba Walter made GT3 history last year by becoming the first car to win with Dunlop tyres at Jarama in Spain, with Huertgen also becoming the first female driver to win an FIA GT3 race.  A second and fifth placed finishes in Portugal has given Huertgen and Walter the Championship lead after the opening two rounds of 2011.  The second car features race winner Edward Sandstroem, who will be joined by Saudi Arabian driver Abdulaziz Al Faisal, who became the first driver from the Middle East to win an FIA GT3 European Championship race in Portugal. 

The second BMW team is the Dutch Faster Racing by DB Motorsport team, who will feature an all Dutch driver line up including GT1 driver Nicky Catsburg.  However it was the nr35 BMW Z4 of Jeroen den Boer and Hoevert Vos which claimed a podium finish for the all Dutch team in the Algarve.

Race winner Mike Parisy will return in 2011 with French outfit Graff Racing, but has swapped the Corvette Z06R for the new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3.  In total six of the new cars are entered for the season with a second entry from Graff Racing alongside a pair of cars for Gravity Charouz Racing from the Czech Republic and German team Heico Motorsport.

United Autosports return with their pair of Audi R8 LMS, with Zak Brown and Matt Bell securing their first FIA GT3 podium in Portugal last season.  The line up has one change from last year with Mark Patterson being joined by GT4 European Cup Champion Joe Osborne in the nr22 Audi.  Sainteloc Racing also return for another season with the Audi R8 and Belgian Audi Club have also entered a pair of cars, one for the Belgian pairing of Enzo Ide and Greg Franchi, with which the Belgian pair won Round 2 in Portugal.

Two teams will run the new Ferrari 458 Italia, including former FIA GT2 Champions AF Corse.  The Italian team is running two cars, one for Italian pairing, former British and Italian F3 racer Francesco Castellacci and Federico Leo and British GT front runners Dan Brown and Glynn Geddie. Castellacci scored a pole position in the opening round of the year but the car was too badly damaged in a second session qualifying accident to take part in the race.  Round 2 saw the Italians take a well deserved podium finish and they will be looking towards the podium once again at Silverstone. The British MTECH team is the second outfit to run the new Ferrari, with Ireland’s Matt Griffin and Britain’s Duncan Cameron in the nr20 car.

LMP Motorsport will be the only team to run the championship winning Aston Martin DBRS9, with the French team boasting three former GT3 race winners – Dimitri Enjalbert, Gael Lesoudier and Maxime Martin, who is also a GT1 World Championship race winner.

German team Fischer Racing return with their race winning Ford GT, with Denmark’s Christoffer Nygaard and Finland’s Mikko Eskelinen looking to build on the strong performances they had together in 2010.  Fellow German team Reiter Engineering will run a pair of Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 with reigning ADAC GT Masters Champion and FIA GT3 race winner Albert von Thurn und Taxis being joined by Austrian driver Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof in 2011.
 
Points will be awarded to the top 10 drivers in each race with 25 points for the winner down to 1 point for 10th, the same as the FIA GT1 World Championship.  In a change for 2011 success ballast, which has been a feature of the FIA GT3 European Championship since 2009, has been replaced with Compensation Times.  Instead of the top three cars and drivers being awarded +20kg, +15kg and +10kg in each race, they will receive a time of +15 seconds for 1st place, +10 seconds for second place and +5 seconds for 3rd, which will be added to the minimum pit stop duration set for the following race in the Championship.

There will be live television coverage of every round of the FIA GT3 European Championship in many parts of the world, with a full rundown of the TV channels on the official championship website, www.gt3europe.com, where the races will also be streamed live and the latest championship news, results and other information will be available immediately after each race.

2011-05-31
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