FIA GT World Championship 2012

AFAIK it will be streamed live on YouTube.

AFAIK it will be streamed live on YouTube.

Thanks, I hope so. The series used Dailymotion for live streaming last year, but I don't know enough about YouTube's live features.

Thanks, I hope so. The series used Dailymotion for live streaming last year, but I don't know enough about YouTube's live features.

It was good in my experience, I happen to see some live YT streaming last year when the EHF used that for their European Championship (handball).

Maybe or hopefully it's a sign of the growing attention as a more robust system needed for streaming.

Edited by hunnylander, 05 April 2012 - 14:18.

Youtube was used for streaming the Dubai 24hrs earlier this year, and have to say I couldn't fault it at all. No drop off in quality during most of the race (I watched probably 12 hours worth in total).

Good, that sounds promising. The Dailymotion service last year was OK, but the quality wasn't the best.

Anyway, here's the official schedule for this weekend (after a couple of bad experiences in the past, I've found that it's better to use the circuit's media information rather than to rely on the GT1 website ). Due to the quirks of the Easter weekend, the qualifying race will be held on Sunday with the championship race on Monday.

For any other aussies, both races will be live on speedhd (foxtel) sunday and monday night. I think they are also showing GT3 euro.

I'm actually quite interested to see how this championship goes this year (have been watching the last 2 anyway), as the mix of cars is good, there's a backbone of decent driving talent, and like others have mentioned there are also some pukka teams entering now rather than rich 'hobbyists' (JRM, fair play to them though as they've gone onto LMP now). WRT Audi are a top outfit, and Bartels' Vita4one guys have been one of the best run GT teams around.

GT3 cars are pretty boss as well, most have paddle-shift gears and great sounding engines, so it's not too much of a drop down from GT1-Spec...

The Ferrari of Ide and Castellacci certainly looks on it, if their times in both practice sessions today are to be believed.

Qualifying, the qualifying race and the championship race will all be shown on YouTube this weekend.

Edited by dank, 06 April 2012 - 18:06.

FP1 results - Stippler fastest in the Audi with a time of 1:27.108. Very few laps from all of the teams, and none at all from the solitary Sunred Ford.

FP2 results - Lock-out for AF Corse, but the leading times are slower than in FP2. Interesting to note that both Ferraris completed far fewer laps than most of their rivals. Towards the back of the field, not all of the cars seem to be on the pace as of yet.

Those are the laps they set their fastest times on.

The #4 Ferrari did 35 laps this afternoon while the #3 did 36.

Edited by dank, 06 April 2012 - 19:28.

Those are the laps they set their fastest times on.

The #4 Ferrari did 35 laps this afternoon while the #3 did 36.

Ah, OK. Whoops! Thanks for the correction.

So we've lost 1 car from 18 already? And only 11 cars took part for GT3 Europe FP2? That's less than 30 cars combined for the only two remaining FIA GT(3) series, Blancpain not counted as it's sort of an outside thing for SRO.

In 2009, the last year we still had FIA championships for all four proper GT classes, the entry numbers were like this for the opening race @ Silverstone:
FIA GT1/GT2 - 24x
FIA GT3 - 36x
FIA GT4 - 17x

It's a shame they managed to kill off a good championship in just few years, same goes for GT4

Edited by SonnyViceR, 07 April 2012 - 09:07.

Really, does it matter? The fact GT1 has produced a consistent level of entertaining races over the past couple of years suggests not.

Really, does it matter? The fact GT1 has produced a consistent level of entertaining races over the past couple of years suggests not.

Did you watch FIA GT prior it became a world championship? The difference is like night and day! Longer races, races during the night, calendar which actually went to important markets (UK, Germany, Italy etc), better TV production, no stupid two-car per team / four car per brand rule, teams were free to enter any race they wished, two classes of cars (which were also eglible elsewhere), less BoP, no spec tyre rule, no spec ECU rule, no mandatory pit windows, Spa 24 hours was round of the championship, etc.

Still, I can somewhat agree that the debut 2010 season was okay-ish with a good calendar, decent privateer grid and some good battles here and there but unfortunately they started to use BoP far more extensively than before and Corvette was completely killed off from any competition after round one. Aston, and later Lambo on the other hand received much less weight and big restrictors which allowed them to fight for top positions easily... only the superiority of Vitaphone and MC12 prevented that. Also it was apparent that the appeal of GT1 wasn't that great for manufacturers as Nissan was the only one to build new car for the championship, Ford GT1 and Lambo R-SV were more or less modified from the existing models and the remaining cars were just grandfathered.

2011 was far weaker for number of reasons, well mainly for inferior calendar and decreasing number of cars on the grid, but 2012 looks even worse... especially as they're using GT3s which always makes messy and artificial racing. I guess they received a waiver from FIA to have a world championship, even if just two continents are present Seeing as they only have 17 cars lined up for Nogaro I wonder if they get in trouble later this season. I believe SRO's promise for event promoter is still to have minimum of 16 cars at every event or there will be sanctions and/or cancellation of the event... they already had problems with this last year

Edited by SonnyViceR, 07 April 2012 - 12:51.

But I guess if you just casually turn on the TV and wanna see some pretty cars running circles on some far east Tilke track for an hour and don't really care what goes on behind the curtains or who wins, this champ might be for you. Then again there are 500 other GT3 series like that already

Edited by SonnyViceR, 07 April 2012 - 13:19.

Blimey...

Seeing as they only have 17 cars lined up for Nogaro I wonder if they get in trouble later this season. I believe SRO's promise for event promoter is still to have minimum of 16 cars at every event or there will be sanctions and/or cancellation of the event... they already had problems with this last year

I wonder if Ratel will penalise himself for one of the SRO-assembled teams failing to field two cars this weekend?

Anyway, after my earlier worrying, there's a big obvious link to the live action (great quality too!) on the Autosport home page.

But I guess if you just casually turn on the TV and wanna see some pretty cars running circles on some far east Tilke track for an hour and don't really care what goes on behind the curtains or who wins, this champ might be for you. Then again there are 500 other GT3 series like that already

I really care what goes on behind the curtains and who wins. And yes, the McLarens get special attention from me, but I like this serie, always liked.

There's a strong reason why GT3 cars racing this year, despite the GT1 World name. There were no enough GT1 interests and zero GT2.

Personally I'm not a fan of too much GT-specs, and the GT1 spec seemed an agonizing one, GT2 ditto, while GT3 is flourishing and many big manufacturers target this spec.

Come on, there is Ferrari vs McLaren vs Lamborghini vs Mercedes vs Audi vs Aston Martin vs BMW vs Porsche in this worldwide serie.

What seems good about current GT3 specs is that the manufacturers aren't too constrained by the regulations, that developments to improve the car as a whole can be made without it being decreed as too much of an advantage. Plus I feel like it's a good balance of power and downforce.

The cars look great as well, the Z4 is my personal favourite with it's exaggerated fenders and tiny cabin.

I really care what goes on behind the curtains and who wins. And yes, the McLarens get special attention from me, but I like this serie, always liked.

There's a strong reason why GT3 cars racing this year, despite the GT1 World name. There were no enough GT1 interests and zero GT2.

Personally I'm not a fan of too much GT-specs, and the GT1 spec seemed an agonizing one, GT2 ditto, while GT3 is flourishing and many big manufacturers target this spec.

Come on, there is Ferrari vs McLaren vs Lamborghini vs Mercedes vs Audi vs Aston Martin vs BMW vs Porsche in this worldwide serie.

This "worlwide series" of yours, which only goes to Europe and Asia, indeed has the Ferrari vs McLaren vs Lamborghini vs Mercedes vs Audi vs Aston Martin vs BMW vs Porsche battle you speak of, but in the end it's just a glorified field of privateer teams (with mostly gentleman drivers) running cars that get performance balanced again and again, after every round and sometimes even during the weekend. You can see these cars running with same exact specifications in national and international GT3 championships all over the world, and in fact the level of competition in some of them is much higher - ADAC GT Masters and BEC for example.

Moreover, seeing as the amount of GT3 teams around the globe is astronomical at the moment, a 18 car grid - which by the way is already one car down before we've actually had any races - is not that great of a result. Three of those teams are also heavily supported by SRO as FIA was starting to get a tad worried a few months ago, so in reality only six teams showed real interest towards the championship. Now, part of the blame for this rather crappy outcome was that there were so many other GT3 options in Europe - SRO alone hosts tens of them - but I don't think the appeal of this "updated" GT1 championship was never that high. Late calendar changes, stupid entry fee demands from the SRO, no manufacturer support allowed, confusion around the whole future of the series and so on, these are all things that make you not wanna commit to your series.

Ratel always wanted to have a world championship with GT3s, but was "forced" to use GT1s in 2010 after GT2 manufacturers didn't wanna commit to his GT3s after 2008. And when he wanted to continue with GT1s, there was no interest. Personally, I loved the old GT1s, but to be totally honest 2009 was kind of a farewell for them in every respect. If Ratel had only continued with GT1/GT2 combo in 2010 we might have got something out of it, but unfortunately he created the FIA GT2 Euro for 2010 which was always destined to fail epicly. So
the big gainer from all this was the ACO.

Move to GT3 was inevitable this year - especially as SRO had killed off GT1, GT2 and GT4 from their catalogues in just three year timeframe - but they should've cancelled this whole world championship thingie and instead focused their full efforts on their other series.

What seems good about current GT3 specs is that the manufacturers aren't too constrained by the regulations, that developments to improve the car as a whole can be made without it being decreed as too much of an advantage. Plus I feel like it's a good balance of power and downforce.

There are no GT3 regulations, which also means that the car development matters 0% as the performance balancing means everything. Basically you could bring Lada Priora to the grid and FIA would boost your car with big air restrictors and lighter weight and huge honking rear wings, while the other cars would get penalties to bring them down to your level (or whatever the lottery machine does). Basically it's an easy option for car manufacturers

Oh and what a massive surprise...

Oh and what a massive surprise...

Has anyone raced in Russia yet? Didn't Superleague cancel their round as well?

Has anyone raced in Russia yet? Didn't Superleague cancel their round as well?

Every single international series that has ever planned to go there has cancelled it and this was always going to happen... GT3 Euro did the same last year too

This "worlwide series" of yours, which only goes to Europe and Asia

Shame for San Luis. It was planned, I don't know what was the reason behind replacing it with Korea. Maybe I read it here it was something 'force majeure' or something.

Still it's much harder and more expensive to do this series than those European-only/national GT3 series you keep referring too.

Well it is expensive, especially if the series continues to have as poor driving standards as during the last two years and teams have to waste resources on spare parts and chassises... but seeing as SRO helps with logistics and let's teams to carry over the cars via their own plane in fly-away races (at least they did in the past) it's slightly more afforable. Also unlike in series like BES, they only have two hour-long sprint races and no 24 hour marathons to pull off, which helps things off considerably.

It's a championship for lower end privateer GT teams so there's always gonna be problems with budgets, another reason for not trying to screw around too much with this world championship fiasco. Teams were already massively fed up with China doubleheader last year (especially the crap-tastic Goldenport circuit) but FIA keeps wanting to go to these crowdless Tilke tracks that offer large amounts of cash. Ratel speaks of "market places for manufacturers" but that makes no sense since there are no real manufacturers present in the series.. Going to places like Zhuhai and Fuji can be justified in championships like WEC where LMP1 and GTE factory teams actually can pull out some good PR but this is a privateer champ with all-European grid...

Edited by SonnyViceR, 07 April 2012 - 19:51.

Did you watch FIA GT prior it became a world championship? The difference is like night and day! Longer races, races during the night, calendar which actually went to important markets (UK, Germany, Italy etc), better TV production, no stupid two-car per team / four car per brand rule, teams were free to enter any race they wished, two classes of cars (which were also eglible elsewhere), less BoP, no spec tyre rule, no spec ECU rule, no mandatory pit windows, Spa 24 hours was round of the championship, etc.

Still, I can somewhat agree that the debut 2010 season was okay-ish with a good calendar, decent privateer grid and some good battles here and there but unfortunately they started to use BoP far more extensively than before and Corvette was completely killed off from any competition after round one. Aston, and later Lambo on the other hand received much less weight and big restrictors which allowed them to fight for top positions easily... only the superiority of Vitaphone and MC12 prevented that. Also it was apparent that the appeal of GT1 wasn't that great for manufacturers as Nissan was the only one to build new car for the championship, Ford GT1 and Lambo R-SV were more or less modified from the existing models and the remaining cars were just grandfathered.

2011 was far weaker for number of reasons, well mainly for inferior calendar and decreasing number of cars on the grid, but 2012 looks even worse... especially as they're using GT3s which always makes messy and artificial racing. I guess they received a waiver from FIA to have a world championship, even if just two continents are present Seeing as they only have 17 cars lined up for Nogaro I wonder if they get in trouble later this season. I believe SRO's promise for event promoter is still to have minimum of 16 cars at every event or there will be sanctions and/or cancellation of the event... they already had problems with this last year

I totally agree with you on this, though I speculated that prior to 2010 the series was catered so that the Vitaphone/MC12 would win the championship.

The 24 hours of SPA was an incredible race. Couldn't believe it when they took it off the calender.

Edited by FSLIV, 07 April 2012 - 22:10.

I have a question, if the First race really on Monday? And has anyone tried to access the qualifying video on youtube in the USA and was denied??

first race is sunday, second on monday i think

I have a question, if the First race really on Monday? And has anyone tried to access the qualifying video on youtube in the USA and was denied??

The first race is indeed today. It is classified as a Qualifying race. It determines the grid positions for the main race on Monday.

Qualifying results...

I totally agree with you on this, though I speculated that prior to 2010 the series was catered so that the Vitaphone/MC12 would win the championship.;)

Well yeah they did seem to penalise and disqualify everyone else expect the Maserati guys. Even on the very last race of the championship, Zolder 2009 they found a way to DSQ the Pekaracing Corvette, Vitaphone's only opposition...;) But then again MC12 was never a fully legal to the GT1 rules (and completely banned from ACO racing), and would there have been no restrictions it would've easily won every race it entered. So in a way I don't really mind the domination of them as it arguably was the best performing race AND production car on the field, legal or not. And Vitaphone was, and still is a class act.

For this farce of a championship, BMW Z4 was an easy choice for them as it is nicely favoured by BoP

Edited by SonnyViceR, 08 April 2012 - 07:32.

The 24 hours of SPA was an incredible race. Couldn't believe it when they took it off the calender.

Spa 24h used to be on my top 3 races of the year!

But now that it's part of the Blancpain series it's not the same anymore, just another GT3 show

The first race is indeed today. It is classified as a Qualifying race. It determines the grid positions for the main race on Monday.

Thanks!!

Well yeah they did seem to penalise and disqualify everyone else expect the Maserati guys. Even on the very last race of the championship, Zolder 2009 they found a way to DSQ the Pekaracing Corvette, Vitaphone's only opposition...;) But then again MC12 was never a fully legal to the GT1 rules (and completely banned from ACO racing), and would there have been no restrictions it would've easily won every race it entered. So in a way I don't really mind the domination of them as it arguably was the best performing race AND production car on the field, legal or not. And Vitaphone was, and still is a class act.

For this farce of a championship, BMW Z4 was an easy choice for them as it is nicely favoured by BoP

So true!!

Is there any word on why the Americas can't access the replays on YouTube.

Edited by FSLIV, 08 April 2012 - 13:17.

This was a great opening race in wet/damp conditions. Nice battles and overtakings. I really enjoyed it from start to flag.

was a decent race, watched the last 15mins

I had severe internet connection problems so I missed the first ten minutes (and Enge's first lap), but the remainder of the race was good to watch. I hope tomorrow's race is wet as well, as I think it will be very hard to pass on a dry track.

Well, as a Ferrari fan I'm really hoping for a dry race

Here are the results from the Qualifying race earlier today.

'Ronzo' did a great job yesterday


(Ronzo is the nickname of the McLaren 12C GT car, it was mentioned in the live coverage and that it won't go down too well for everyone in Woking. )

Forty minutes until the start of the Championship Race, and it's been dry (if foggy) so far today.

Where can you watch it?

Forty minutes until the start of the Championship Race, and it's been dry (if foggy) so far today.

Currently they replay the Qualifying Race, its best parts is now.

Where can you watch it?

YouTube, at the official GT1World account.

Where can you watch it?

EPSN in the UK.

Not sure about other countries.

German and other EU residents (it works for Hungary too for example) can watch it here:

http://eurovision.di.../gt1/index.html

Edited by hunnylander, 09 April 2012 - 11:51.

YouTube, at the official GT1World account.

Thanks mate.

Forgive my ignorance but is it only the 1 McLaren running?

They are talking about Pirelli tires and how will they last a race stint. Where have i heard that before?

Forgive my ignorance but is it only the 1 McLaren running?

Not sure about today, yesterday the No 1 crashed out very early, I missed what happened exactly and when, at the start or before it. I saw only in the highlights the car was damaged at the front.

Edit: Just said the commentators now, it was crashed on the lap onto the grid, before the start, in the tricky conditions. The damage was minor, but spare parts were needed to save, so that car gave up the Qualifying Race.

Edited by hunnylander, 09 April 2012 - 12:08.

Audi's were strong all weekend. Merc just kept getting better. Vilander in the lead Ferrari was doing really well until his penalty, a 5 and 6 finish was a fair result I guess for my team :-)

Here are the results :-