FIA GT3 will not go to Russia in 2011

As the Smolensk circuit could not be brought up to FIA standards on time for financial reasons, the Russian round of the FIA GT3 was canceled.

Published on 31/05/2011 à 19:27

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Always eager to export his championships to new horizons, Stéphane Ratel planned to bring his FIA GT3 European Championship to Russia. The FIA GT3 would then have become the first international motorsport competition to take place on Russian territory. But the Smolenskring, on which the event was to take place on August 20 and 21, was unable to receive the necessary modifications to accommodate an FIA-labelled discipline. The problem ? The promoters did not receive financial support from the region in time, as was planned.

“We worked hard with the Russian promoters to find a solution to the problem,” explains Stéphane Ratel, the boss of SRO, which organizes the FIA GT3 European championship. But in the end we understood that we would not be able to race in Russia in 2011. Although I am disappointed, we must look to the future. Russia is an important market for sports cars and luxury brands associated with the FIA GT3 European Championship and the FIA GT1 World Championship. We will continue to work towards going to Russia in the near future, probably in 2012. We will announce the fallback solution for the fifth round as soon as we have everything finalized with the new circuit. »

After the first round, held on May 7 and 8 in Portugal on the Algarve circuit, the protagonists of the FIA GT3 European Championship will travel to Great Britain this weekend at Silverstone, before going to Navarra in Spain on July 16 and 17 then in France at Paul-Ricard on August 20 and 21. The final will take place in the Netherlands, in Zandvoort on October 15 and 16, after a fifth round, the location and date of which should therefore be announced soon.