FIA GT 2010 Championship

[Vince_Fiero]

Edit: seemed to be a double post, bad internet connection, sorry.

I added a more elaborate story: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?p=3876889#post3876889
see also in my signature

 

[Tommi]

Looks like we will be able to add BMW Alpina to GT1 in the future.👍

http://www.gt1world.com/news/article/bmw-

Aurora Racing Designs has started development of the BMW-Alpina B6 platform for customers seeking entry to the FIA GT1 World Championship.

The GT1 project is an extension of Aurora’s design and development programme supporting Alpina in their successful return to racing with the BMW-Alpina B6 GT3 car.

...

 

[Ardius]

Well, not really, as its Alpina. Like "adding Porsche" when its RUF.

 

[Tommi]

Well, not really, as its Alpina. Like "adding Porsche" when its RUF.

True. BMW-Alpina then.

 

[Tired Tyres]

I missed the live Jarama GT3 races today because of Motogp and BTTC racing but luckily they can be watched here.

http://gt3europe.com/

 

[Tommi]

I missed the live Jarama GT3 races today because of Motogp and BTTC racing but luckily they can be watched here.

http://gt3europe.com/

I only managed to catch the last 15 minutes, but there still was some great racing. I'll catch up with the rest of the race tomorrow.
Great job by Schubert Motorsport, I really wasn't expecting the Z4 to win any races this season.👍

______________

No more all girl Ford GT in GT1 anymore..

http://www.gt1world.com/news/article/panis-to-drive-matech-ford-gt-

Frenchman Olivier Panis has been confirmed in the No.6 Matech Competition Ford GT alongside Natacha Gachnang for the fourth round of the championship at Paul Ricard.

It means that Matech will have two ex-Formula One drivers in their ranks for the weekend. Panis joins Romain Grosjean, who co-drives the No.5 car with Thomas Mutsch. The pair currently lead the drivers’ standings.

Panis replaces Cyndie Allemann, the Swiss driver who shared the No.6 car in Abu Dhabi and Brno. According to the Matech, she is unable to fulfil her commitments to the team for the remainder of the season due to personal and professional schedules.

Panis drove for Ligier, Prost and McLaren in a Formula One career spanning 10 years and 158 races. He was also a test driver for BAR and Toyota. His only win came on a rain-lashed Monaco in 1996.

He knows the Paul Ricard track well as his regular Le Mans Series team is based nearby. He recently competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours at the wheel of a Team Oreca Peugeot.

In looking ahead to his GT1 debut, he said: “I am delighted to take part in this round with Matech Competition, a professional team with very good results this year.

“I have always enjoyed driving on the Castellet circuit because this is the place where I drove a single-seater for the first time and I have already run a lot of races here. But this will be the first time I share my seat with a woman, Natacha Gachnang, who shows great determination.”

Meanwhile, in other team news, Reiter Engineering have confirmed that another ex-Formula One driver, Ricardo Zonta, will partner fellow Brazilian Rafael Daniel in the No.25 Lamborghini.

I'm looking forward to see how Olivier will get on in the championship, we've already seen he is a competitive driver in prototypes at Le Mans so it will be interesting how the transition to GT racing will go.

 

[Ardius]

Great to see Panis still getting good drives, I've supported him ever since his F1 1997 season. 👍

 

[Clark]

Shame it's the same situation as Mika Salo, the second driver will always stop the car from getting any decent results. I'm glad he's got another FIA GT driver after his performance last year, he and Jean-Christophe Boullion are my favourite sportscar drivers.

 

[Tommi]

This weekend it's all three GT championships (1,3 & 4) at Paul Ricard. Lucas (Ordonez) has a new car - a 370Z, the awesome Oliver Gavin will be driving the Mad Croc Corvette in GT1 and of course Olivier Panis will be driving one of the Matech Ford GT's.

TV Schedules on each website. You can also watch the GT1 & 3 action live on the official websites:

http://gt1world.com
http://gt3europe.com
http://gt4cup.com



I'm hoping the Turner/Enge Young Driver AMR Aston can get some good results this weekend in GT1, same for Marc VDS racing after the unfortunate events at Le Mans and Brno. The brilliant action throughout the GT3 field in the races at Jarama mean i'm not sure who to support at the moment, it would be nice to see the Schubert Z4 do well again though. And of course I wish both Lucas Ordonez & Jordan Tresson the best of luck this weekend in GT4.👍

 

[Vince_Fiero]

TAnd of course I wish both Lucas Ordonez & Jordan Tresson the best of luck this weekend in GT4.👍

+1 👍

It seems Jordan is a bit nervous for his first race with possible stormy weather. It will be difficult to follow up on the race, but it seems Jordan and Lucas have internet connection in the hotel, so we might get some more info through that channel.

 

[Speedster502]

Going to try and watch as much as I can of the FIA GT1 this weekend, is a shame that Bloomberg is only showing the final race which clashes with TopGear! Gah! Atleast I have the following week off so I can catch up. But I should be able to watch the Qualifying and Qualifying Race on Saturday.

 

[Speedster502]

Sorry for the double post, but FIA GT1 Qualifying has started.

EDIT: This obviously shows the enthusiasm this board has for any other kind of racing aside from F1. Anyway the Qualifying was quick and close, and now the Qualifying Race about to begin. Apparently. I say apparently as the stream isn't working.

 

[Dragonistic]

I couldn't get the stream to work either, fear not there are others interested in this series. I've never had the opportunity to watch GT racing for a season before (despite really wanting to I've never known where to look as I can't watch it on TV). As soon as I found the website online to watch the whole season, I've watched every race quali and main. I'm not to interested in watching the qualifying though I like to know the result, the races are where it's at for me and I look forward to catching the quali race as soon as it goes up on GT1TV.

Edit, Quali race is up now, watching now 👍.

 

[Ardius]

Fantastic move by Warren Hughes on the outside of Signes! A relatively dull race though (though a bit better than Brno).
I love racing Paul Ricard, unlike most people, its a great layout for really nailing understeer-style racing. Its also a good circuit to practice controlling high-power cars with high speed corners to test the stability and low speed tight corners to test the torque of the car. But for racing action to watch, it isn't amazing. Usually you need the driver in front to make a mistake to really get a chance to pass.

Some heart-in-mouth stuff at the chicane on the Mistral too - Grosjean getting twitchy under braking at 180mph was great to watch.

EDIT: This obviously shows the enthusiasm this board has for any other kind of racing aside from F1.

I think thats an unfair comment considering the following in the NASCAR, Indycar and Touring car threads. No series is ever going to have the popularity of F1. Once upon a time the WRC did, but those days are long ago it seems.
GT racing is generally an unpopular format because its long-distance racing. This new championship is a bit more sprint-style but its still got some way to go to get the same package as F1.

The main reason no series will ever get near the popularity of F1 is ironically the atmosphere. People always mock F1 for being all politics and little racing, but actually the politics give another element or twist to the action on the track. It keeps it in the headlines and affects the races just as much as the power output of an engine. Pretty much F1 has many elements going for it, not just the racing. With series like GT1 there is no silly season, there is no team politics, there are no huge controversies. There is nothing wrong with this of course, but I think it gives series like it an image of lifeless-ness. It gives an image that the drivers and teams turn up, race and then go home again.
Basically it needs drama to be popular.

Also consider that this is a relatively new series and that the previous FIA GT championships weren't massively popular either.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

EDIT: This obviously shows the enthusiasm this board has for any other kind of racing aside from F1.

Not everyone gets broadcasts of GT1 racing. All I get is Formula 1, MotoGP and a little bit of NASCAR. No other international motorsports, so it's a bit hard to follow the other series.

 

[Speedster502]

While I agree with the points that have been made, when I said F1 that was just what was happening at the time when I was posting. F1 can have a couple of threads running and all of them have activity (even not on a raceweekend) which annoys me when there are other race series which exist out side of it. While I am aware of the wide following here for NASCAR and MotoGP, these seem to be the only others which are followed majorly. People have proved before that GT racing can be followed in a similar fashion to the other races, I mean just look back at the first race of the series there was plently of disccusion taking place about Qualifying, and even free practice. But of course that didn't happen for every race. I would understand if this weekend was only FIA GT1, but also GT3 and GT4 are running (I know a couple of people in this thread are more interested in latter than GT1).

Concerning the issue of not everyone can watch these, well they are streamed live via their website also in most countries the races are also shown on atleast one TV channel. So it's not that people can't watch it, it's that people don't want to watch it due to it being a relatively unknown world series. I personally find GT racing of any type more interesting than F1 or NASCAR, I've always had a interest in supercars and these are essentially race prep'd supercars and they do have close racing. As an example, I'm currently watching the Qualifying Race (now that the stream is working ) and currently for the last 15 minutes or so 4 different cars have been battling for their positions. This is interesting and close racing.

Sorry for being saying what I said, it was perhaps a step too far in this instance.

On a GT1 related note, the Qualifying Race does not take place when Bloomberg is saying it is, it actually takes place at 13:15-14:15 GMT time, so essentially the Bloomberg TV show is essentially a highlights reel I guess. So I'll be watching the live stream instead...again if it works.

 

[Dragonistic]

For me, all that drama and politics seriously hurts F1 for me, that and the racing is generally not very interesting in the important places (though this season has shown some good races, I have got much more entertainment out of the GT1s this year). Similarly, F1 is dominated by a select few, whereas GT1 though their are often the same suspects near the front, no one team has any major advantage which they don't then lose on another circuit as shown by often having 3-4 manufacturers in the first 2 rows and then they don't just leave each other. Overall, for me personally I'm much more interested in seeing some close racing and not spending an hour watching people talk about various rules and regulations, F1 hasn't provided fantastic racing consistently for me in a very long time and I used to be a big fan during the 90s era (and my childhood) but now I show a passing interest and nothing more.

Also, for Interludes and others who are interested, you can find all the races so far (and qualifying race and sessions) right here http://www.gt1world.com/gt1tv though someone may have posted it before.

 

[Tired Tyres]

GT3 cars underway. Safety car at the moment.

http://gt3europe.com/

 

[Mt. Lynx]

Found something of interest:
Ratel interview about the future

It´s a translation, but you get the essentials.

 

[Ardius]

While I agree with the points that have been made, when I said F1 that was just what was happening at the time when I was posting. F1 can have a couple of threads running and all of them have activity (even not on a raceweekend) which annoys me when there are other race series which exist out side of it. While I am aware of the wide following here for NASCAR and MotoGP, these seem to be the only others which are followed majorly. People have proved before that GT racing can be followed in a similar fashion to the other races, I mean just look back at the first race of the series there was plently of disccusion taking place about Qualifying, and even free practice. But of course that didn't happen for every race. I would understand if this weekend was only FIA GT1, but also GT3 and GT4 are running (I know a couple of people in this thread are more interested in latter than GT1).

Concerning the issue of not everyone can watch these, well they are streamed live via their website also in most countries the races are also shown on atleast one TV channel. So it's not that people can't watch it, it's that people don't want to watch it due to it being a relatively unknown world series. I personally find GT racing of any type more interesting than F1 or NASCAR, I've always had a interest in supercars and these are essentially race prep'd supercars and they do have close racing. As an example, I'm currently watching the Qualifying Race (now that the stream is working ) and currently for the last 15 minutes or so 4 different cars have been battling for their positions. This is interesting and close racing.

Sorry for being saying what I said, it was perhaps a step too far in this instance.

On a GT1 related note, the Qualifying Race does not take place when Bloomberg is saying it is, it actually takes place at 13:15-14:15 GMT time, so essentially the Bloomberg TV show is essentially a highlights reel I guess. So I'll be watching the live stream instead...again if it works.

For me, all that drama and politics seriously hurts F1 for me, that and the racing is generally not very interesting in the important places (though this season has shown some good races, I have got much more entertainment out of the GT1s this year). Similarly, F1 is dominated by a select few, whereas GT1 though their are often the same suspects near the front, no one team has any major advantage which they don't then lose on another circuit as shown by often having 3-4 manufacturers in the first 2 rows and then they don't just leave each other. Overall, for me personally I'm much more interested in seeing some close racing and not spending an hour watching people talk about various rules and regulations, F1 hasn't provided fantastic racing consistently for me in a very long time and I used to be a big fan during the 90s era (and my childhood) but now I show a passing interest and nothing more.

Also, for Interludes and others who are interested, you can find all the races so far (and qualifying race and sessions) right here http://www.gt1world.com/gt1tv though someone may have posted it before.

You also have to consider that GT racing is a different kind of racing to F1 just as NASCAR is different to everything else.
Its not so simple as "its close racing, everyone should enjoy it". NASCAR is close racing and not everyone enjoys it.

Anyway, the point is, there is more to discuss in F1 because of the politics and drama. The drivers are also far more at the centre of discussion, you tend to get many people arguing over their favourite drivers more passionately. Its all part and parcel of being the most popular though.
So its natural that F1 gets multiple threads because there is more to discuss. In GT1 there is very little to discuss other than the races.

The only race that comes to close to the following of F1 in terms of discussion is Le Mans. Again, the politics and technology side of things play a large part.
There is nothing they can do about making GT1 more popular really other than marketing it more aggressively.

 

[Dragonistic]

Its not so simple as "its close racing, everyone should enjoy it". NASCAR is close racing and not everyone enjoys it.

I never claimed such things, look at the very start of your quote from me and I mentioned again later to re-iterate that that is purely myself and I'm not suggesting a universal opinion. I understand and agree with the points you made and was never presenting any sort of objection to that, I was merely presenting why I personally prefer what has occured so far this season in GT1 as opposed to F1. I was in no way suggesting that GT1 is a better series or should be more popular nor was I suggesting F1 is a poor series, merely which one I prefer to watch. Similarly, I quite like NASCAR because it is close racing this is something which is quite consistent for me across racing series but I am not suggesting (for example) people who like GT should like NASCAR based on purely close racing as there's alot more to all kinds of racing, I don't dislike F1 because of the technology or cars but I don't like the politics and the on-track action isn't cutting the mustard for me.

Side note: Formation lap on the stream right now.

 

[Speedster502]

I'm expecting the Maserati to pretty much dominate today, in a similar fashion to how it did yesterday. However, from what I've seen so far the Lamborghini seems to be pulling away a little bit.

EDIT: Oh dear, race leader has a penalty.

EDIT 2: And Warren Hughes, but to be fair he did run really wide at the start.

 

[Ardius]

I never claimed such things, look at the very start of your quote from me and I mentioned again later to re-iterate that that is purely myself and I'm not suggesting a universal opinion. I understand and agree with the points you made and was never presenting any sort of objection to that, I was merely presenting why I personally prefer what has occured so far this season in GT1 as opposed to F1. I was in no way suggesting that GT1 is a better series or should be more popular nor was I suggesting F1 is a poor series, merely which one I prefer to watch. Similarly, I quite like NASCAR because it is close racing this is something which is quite consistent for me across racing series but I am not suggesting (for example) people who like GT should like NASCAR based on purely close racing as there's alot more to all kinds of racing, I don't dislike F1 because of the technology or cars but I don't like the politics and the on-track action isn't cutting the mustard for me.

It was not personally directed at you, it was more at the general "why does no one watch GT1, its so good" feeling in the thread. I quoted you because it was adding to what you said, not in argument with.

 

[Dragonistic]

Decent race overall, I've no idea what happened to that Lambo later on, they had got back up to 12th then I noticed on the live timings they really dropped off (around 8 seconds per lap off the leaders!) and lost alot of places during the last part of the race.

Also, fair enough Ardius, I just wished to clarify that I agree with what was said and what I meant 👍

 

[Tommi]

Jamie Cambell-Walter is a legend, that 3 way battle towards the end was EPIC!!.👍

Great race for Marc VDS too, getting into the top ten after starting at the back of the grid.

 

[Speedster502]

Epic battle towards the end between the GTR, Lambo and Aston. Loved it. Seemed like Jamie was getting a little bit annoyed with that Lamborghini driver. Great race in my opinion, shame that the battle for first place was pretty much no existant, but the other battles further behind in the grid made up for it.

 

[Dragonistic]

Those hand gestures towards the Lambo (Zonta perhaps?) were hilarious, the Sumo Nissans performed well overall bar the penalty which stopped them from having a good chance at having both cars in the top 5. It is a shame that the Vitaphone Maser was so dominant from a spectator perspective but it was a deserved victory as they've been strong all season and always in the mix. There was plenty going on through the rest of the field to make up for it though 👍.

 

[Mt. Lynx]

Thought I´d post a vid from the last GT1 race. Watch especially the bit from 3:27 - 3:45, whith Jamie Campbell-Walter in the Nissan GTR. Good stuff!

 

[Vince_Fiero]

For the GT4 races and the GT Academy winners:

Race One Result
Pos Car Class Drivers Car Time Laps Gap Avgspeed
1 26 GT4 Pierguidi Maserati Granturismo GT441:37.007 17 0 226
2 7 GT4 Meijer Aston Martin GT4 41:49.305 17 12.298 220
3 32 GT4 Mallock Aston Martin GT4 41:56.853 17 19.846 223
4 9 GT4 Nicoll-Jones/Abbott Ginetta G50 42:11.863 17 34.856 225
5 2 GT4 Ordonnez Nissan 370Z 42:23.788 17 46.781 220
6 1 GT4 Tresson/Buncombe Nissan 370Z 42:41.899 17 1:04.892 220

Buncombe starts, gets passed by Ordonnez and passes a car himself. Tresson takes over at the stop and is threatend by the car Buncombe passed. He gets passed, but it seems the field gets closer and closer. Due to running out of fluel he can pass the car before and then catches soon the next car. Some issue in the chicane makes a car from behinde cut in front of him, but Tresson avoids and puts down the best performance of the seanson for him.

The new 370Z of Lucas:

Second race
Maserati Granturismo before the Ginetta.
Ordonez out at round 8.
Tresson/Buncombe en round 15, 2 laps behind the winner.

Tresson starts and loses a place since an other car almost drove him in the wall. He comes in the stand very close to the others between 6th and 9th only 2". Alex gets out quick and is in 6th. Lucas went out after contact with Meijer, 5th. After some penalies of an other driver, going to 4th. Then the gear gets stuck in 3rd.

Championship standing:
6 Lucas Ordoñez
8 Tresson/Buncombe

 

[Pescara for GT5]

I really find this series interesting, is there any way for Americans to watch it???