The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup is a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) with the approval of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Born as the FIA GT Series in 2013, it was sponsored by Blancpain from 2014 to 2019, and was variously branded as the Blancpain Sprint Series in 2014 and 2015, the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup from 2016 to 2018, and the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe in 2019. In 2020, Amazon Web Services was named official presenter and the series was branded as "GT World Challenge Powered by AWS". Fanatec concurrently served as title sponsor between 2021 and 2024.
The championship now exclusively races in Europe, but had in previous years visited non-European countries, including Azerbaijan and Russia. The series continues the sprint format for GT-cars carried out by the defunct FIA GT1 World Championship.
Regulations The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup is contested with GT3-spec cars. Each event consists of two races over a weekend with two drivers per car and a mandatory pit stop.
Races The schedule of the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup consists of races in Europe.
History In 2013, the FIA GT Series was created after the demise of the FIA GT1 World Championship and the FIA GT3 European Championship. The series was supposed to form the FIA GT World Series in conjunction with the GT Endurance Series. This plan was abandoned before the start of the 2013 season.
The name of the FIA GT Series resembles the FIA GT Championship (1997-2009) that was known for its endurance races all over the world. Except for the mandatory driver changes, the two championships differ highly in sporting and technical regulations.
In 2014, the competition changed the name to the Sprint Series.
in 2016 the SRO announced both the Sprint and Endurance Series integrated into the GT Series, putting the emphasis on the overall drivers' and manufacturers' titles causing the Sprint Series name to change from Sprint Series to GT Series Sprint Cup.
On 25 May 2018, the SRO acquired promotional rights to the GT World Challenge America, a North American GT series sanctioned by the United States Auto Club. On 29 September 2018, the SRO changed the names of the GT Asia and GT Series Sprint Cup, to adopt the World Challenge name used in North America. The three series together will be known as the GT World Challenge (GT WC), with each series adding their region to the series name (America, Asia, Europe).
In 2019, SRO announced that sponsorship by Blancpain had come to an end. For 2020, the GT World Challenge Europe was renamed the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, with the GT Series and GT Series Endurance Cup being renamed the GT World Challenge Europe and GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup respectively.
In 2020, SRO named AWS as the "official presenter" of the series, and the series was branded as "GT World Challenge Powered by AWS". In 2021, Fanatec became the title sponsor of the series. Giving the series its current name of "Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS".
Champions
Drivers Year Pro Cup Silver Cup Pro-Am Trophy Gentlemen Trophy 2013 Stéphane Ortelli Laurens Vanthoorrowspan=1 Sergey Afanasyev Andreas Simonsen Petr Charouz Jan Stoviček 2014 Maximilian Götz Vincent Abril Mateusz Lisowski Marc Basseng Alessandro Latifrowspan=2 2015 Vincent Abril Maximilian Buhk Jules Szymkowiak Alexey KarachevYearOverallSilver CupPro-Am CupAm Cup 2016 Enzo Ide Michele Beretta Luca Stolz Michał Broniszewski Giacomo Piccini Claudio Sdanewitsch 2017 Robin Frijns Stuart Leonard Fabian Schiller Jules Szymkowiak Daniel Keilwitz Alexander Mattschull Stephen Earle David Perel 2018 Raffaele Marciello Michael Meadows Nico Bastian Jack Manchester Nyls Stievenart Markus Winkelhock Pierre Feligioni Claude-Yves Gosselin 2019 Andrea Caldarelli Marco Mapelli Nico Bastian Thomas Neubauer Hiroshi Hamaguchi Phil Keen Florian Scholze Wolfgang Triller 2020 Dries Vanthoor Charles Weerts Simon Gachet Steven Palette Eddie Cheever III Chris Froggattrowspan=3 2021 Dries Vanthoor (2) Charles Weerts (2) Alex Fontana Henrique Chaves Miguel Ramos 2022 Dries Vanthoor (3) Charles Weerts (3) Pierre-Alexandre Jean Ulysse de Pauw Miguel Ramos Dean Macdonald Year Overall Gold Cup Silver Cup Bronze Cup 2023 Mattia Drudi Ricardo Feller Niklas Krütten Calan Williams Jordan Love Alex Malykhin 2024 Lucas Auer Maro Engel Luca Engstler Max Hofer Calan Williams Dan Harper Darren Leung 2025 Kelvin van der Linde Charles Weerts (4) Chris Lulham Thierry Vermeulen Jamie Day Kobe Pauwels Dennis Marschall Dustin Blattner 2026 Bastian Buus Ricardo Feller (2) Tommaso Mosca Matías Zagazeta Matisse Lismont Ignacio Montenegro Eddie Cheever III Peter Dempsey
Teams Year Pro Cup Silver Cup Pro-Am Trophy Gentlemen Trophy 2013 Belgian Audi Club Team WRTrowspan=1 HTP Gravity Charouz HTP Gravity Charouz 2014 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (2) Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Phoenix Racingrowspan=2 2015 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (3) Bentley Team HTP GT Russian TeamYearOverallSilver CupPro-Am CupAm Cup 2016 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (4) Not awarded Kessel Racing AF Corse 2017 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (5) HTP Motorsport Rinaldi Racing Kessel Racing 2018 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (6) Not awarded Saintéloc Racing Boutsen Ginion Racing 2019 AKKA ASP Team AKKA ASP Team Orange1 FFF Racing Team HB Racing 2020 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (7) Saintéloc Racing Sky - Tempesta Racingrowspan=3 2021 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (8) Emil Frey Racing Barwell Motorsport 2022 Team WRT (9) AF Corse AF Corse Year Overall Gold Cup Silver Cup Bronze Cup 2023 Tresor Orange1 Boutsen VDS Haupt Racing Team Pure Rxcing 2024 Team WRT (10) Liqui Moly Team Engstler by OneGroup Team WRT Century Motorsport 2025 Team WRT (11) Emil Frey Racing Comtoyou Racing Kessel Racing 2026 Team WRT (12) AF Corse Team WRT Ziggo Sport – Tempesta Racing
See also British GT Championship GT World Challenge Australia GT World Challenge America GT World Challenge Asia GT World Challenge Europe GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
References
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