FIA GT1 Championship
attracts top teams

The 10-round Championship begins with the first round in Abu Dhabi on April 16 and 17.

The series will travel four continents and will race at some of the famed circuits like Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps, the Nurburgring, Paul Ricard and Interlagos.

Fans in the UAE will get to have a peek at six of the top sportscars burn some rubber at the impressive Yas Marina Circuit. The Aston Martin DB9, the Corvette Z06, the Lamborghini Murcielago R-SV, the Ford GT, the Maserati MC12 and the Nissan GT-R will be seen in action.

Twelve teams have registered for the new world championship which will Formula One, the World Rally Championship and the World Touring Car Championship as the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile’s (FIA) fourth fully accredited world championship. The FIA is the governing body for motorsport in the world. The series will also be the FIA’s only world championship aimed solely at private teams without any factory involvement, which is aimed at keeping costs under control.

The Championship opener will also see the return of former Formula driver Romain Grosjean. Grosjean, who filled in for Nelson Piquet Jr. at Renault, last raced, in his brief stint in Formula One, at the season-ender in Abu Dhabi.

“This FIA GT1 World Championship is the first race in a brand-new and exciting series that yet again focuses world attention on Yas Marina Circuit and Abu Dhabi,” Richard Cregan, CEO of the Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management (ADMM) said on Sunday.

“It will build on the enormous success of the inaugural Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last November, the GP2 Asia Series and the Australian V8 Supercars Championship in February and the Yas Drag Racing Festival two weeks ago. We expect high levels of public interest from across the GCC region, one of the leading centres of sports car ownership in the world,” Cregan said.

The GT1 series will feature 12 teams, 24 cars and 48 drivers in total. Each car must have two drivers and a mandatory pit stop in the middle of the one-hour Qualifying Race and the Championship Race, for change of drivers and tyres. The cars will also be subjected to the FIA Balance of Performance Test to equalise the performance of the different brands. Extra weight or success ballast is added or removed from the cars, depending on their performance in the qualifying race.

The Cytech UAE Touring Car Championship will act as the support race for the race weekend.

Switzerland’s Cyndie Allemann and Natacha Gachnang will race for Matech Competition. Cyndie has taken part in the Formula Renault 2.0 Suisse in which she finished sixth in the championship 2004.

She took part in the Formel 3 Cup in 2006 where she finished ninth in the championship. She also took part in the Formula Three Euroseries and the Firestone Indy Light Series, where her best finish was fourth.

She will be taking part in the famed 24 Hours Le Mans in 2010.

Meanwhile, Natacha is the first female driver to ever take part in the Formula One feeder series—the FIA Formula Two Championship. She will also be taking part in the 24 Hours Le Mans.

james@khaleejtimes.com