2016 might see the biggest field yet to take part in a Blancpain Sprint Series event. A glimpse of what might be the entry list for the first race weekend in Misano is here.
The 2016 seasons starts 8 – 10 April 2016.
Moscow City Racing 2015 track layout
Likely track layout for the Moscow City Racing event of the Blancpain Sprint Series in Moscow on July 4-5 2015. It’s a 2.7 kilometre street course between the Lomonosov State University and the Moskva (with the Luzhniki Stadium on the opposite side of the river). ©Motorsport.com Россия
20 cars for Coupes de Pâques 2015
20 GT3 cars are entered for the first race of the Blancpain Sprint Series (BSS) in Nogaro on Easter Weekend. Bearing in mind that some changes might appear until the green flag drops, here are some remarks on the entry list.
- The pairing Kévin Estre & Rob Bell at Attempto Racing looks very promising.
- DTM and GT veteran Bernd Schneider is back on the track with GT Russian Team.
- There are six German teams in the BSS: that’s over 50%.
- BMW Team Brasil‘s regular drivers have cimmitments across the Atlantic, thus Maxime Martin & Dirk Müller and the Specrafico bros. will drive the two BMW Z4s.
- Fortec has closed it’s GT operations. Thus, they withdrew the Mercedes in BSS.
21 full season entries for BSS in 2015
The SRO has published the full season entry list for the Blancpain Srprint Series in 2015. It contains 21 GT3 cars of 8 different manufacturers. More details here.
Long-time Mercedes team HTP switched to Bentley.
This teams joined the BSS for the 2015 season:
- Attempto Racing | GER | McLaren
- Fach Auto Tech | SUI | Porsche
- GT Russian Team | RUS | Mercedes
- ISR | CZE | Audi
- MRS GT Racing | GER | Nissan
- Rinaldi Corse | GER | Ferrari
This teams left the BSS:
- Bhai Tec Racing | ITA | McLAren
- Blancpain Racing | SUI | Lamborghini
- Grasser Racing Team | AUT | Lamborghini
- ROAL Racing | ITA | BMW
- Villorba Corse | ITA | Ferrari
The first event of the 2015 season is the Coupes de Pâques in Nogaro from 4th April to 6th April 2015.
Blancpain Sprint Series Calendar 2015
On 3 November the FIA published the official Blancpain Sprint Series Calendar 2015 calendar. Thus, the 2015 season consists of seven races.:
- Nogaro, France (04-06 April 2015)
- Brands Hatch, Great Britain (09-10 May 2015)
- Zolder, Belgium (05-07 June 2015)
- Moscow, Russia (03-05 July 2015)
- Portimão Portugal (04-06 September 2015)
- Misano, Italy (02-04 October 2015)
- Baku, Azerbaijan (24-25 October 2015)
The races in Zandvoort (Netherlands) and Orechová Potôň (Slovakia) are discontinued. New additions to the calendar 2015 are Moscow (Russia) and Misano (Italy). The races in Moscow will be contested on a street circuit.
The events in Brasil and Germany that were proposed in the provisional calendar did not materialise.
Götz and WRT are BSS Champions 2014
Maximilian Götz is the driver’s champion of the Blancpain Sprint Series 2014. He would have shared the title with HTP team-mate Maximilian Buhk but the young German had to miss the event in Slovakia and lost valuable points. Combined third were Grasser Racing’s Hari Proczyk and Jeroen Bleekemolen who had a shot at the title until the final event of the season in Baku.
The team‘s championship was won by the Belgian outfit WRT which also won the Silver Cup with Vincent Abril and Mateusz Lisowsk. HTP had to settle with th runner-up spot with Grasser Racing coming home third.
Complete standings are here.
Potential Blancpain Sprint Series Calendar 2015
Today at Spa-Francorchamps, Stéphane Ratel revealed SRO’s plans for the Blancpain Sprint Series (BSS) and Blancpain Endurance Series (BES) in 2015. While the BES shedule is complete, there are still venues to be found for the BSS. There is only a draft for the Blancpain Sprint Series Calendar 2015. The number of races shall remain at seven. The final calendar for 2015 is planned to be presented in September 2014.
In following countries negociations are taking place to host a BSS weekend in 2015:
- Italy
- Germany
- Russia (Moscow Raceway?)
- Brazil (Autódromo Goiânia?)
Those potential new venues rival with the following countries (in the 2014 calendar):
- France
- Great Britain
- Netherlands
- Slovakia
- Portugal
- Belgium
- Azerbaijan
The source is here:Blancpain GT Series Press Conference 2015 Season | Reveal Draft Calendar pic.twitter.com/dAknav294u
Coupes de Pâques 2014
The first Blancpain Sprint Series weekend at Nogaro was solid. A few things were noteworthy:
- Only 17 cars turned a lap in the Main Race. That is not overwhelming when there were 22 cars on the first official entry list.
- The two Maxis (Götz and Buhk) beat Audi on their ‘home track’ on Monday. It can’t start better for the HTP Mercedes pairing.
- But Audi was unlucky to lose Vanthoor/Ramos on the formation lap. Winkelhock/Mayr-Melnhof lost their bonnet and all chances for a good finish.
- What does AH Competições Team Brasil have to do to get a podium in BSS? Sérgio Jimenez and Cacá Bueno finishing 5th after many great battles.
- The GT Open teams Villorba Corse and Bhai Tech Racing need to find some pace in BSS. But judging their performance is difficult beacause they are the only Ferrari and McLaren teams on the grid.
For Blancpain Sprint Series pics and videos from the 2014 Coupes de Pâques, click here.
It’s #BlancpainGT for 2014
For all the GT loving tweeps out there: here’s the list of the current driver’s “@s” on Twitter.
The official Blancpain GT Series (for Sprint and Endurance) hashtag is #BlancpainGT and the official twitter account is @Blancpaingt.
Here are the teams and drivers:
#0 AH Competições | @BMWteambrasil
Nelson Piquet Jr. | @NelsonPiquet
Matheus Stumpf | @matheusstumpf89
#1 Belgian Audi Club WRT | @WRacingTeam1
Laurens Vanthoor | @VanthoorLaurens
César Ramos | @C_Ramoss (not used since 2013)
#2 Belgian Audi Club WRT | @WRacingTeam1
René Rast | @ReneRastRacing
Enzo Ide | @enzoide123
#3 G-Drive Racing | @GDrive_Racing
Stéphane Ortelli | not on Twitter
Grégory Guilvert | not on Twitter
#4 Belgian Audi Club WRT | @WRacingTeam1
Vincent Abril | @VinceAbril
Mateusz Lisowski | @lisowski_racing (not used since 2010)
#5 Phoenix Racing | @phoenix_racing
Markus Winkelhock | @m_winkelhock
Niki Mayr-Melnhof | not on Twitter
#6 Phoenix Racing | @phoenix_racing
Marc Basseng | @MarcBasseng
Alessandro Latif | @AlessandroLatif
#21 AH Competições | @BMWteambrasil
Cacá Bueno | http://web.stagram.com/n/cacabuenoracing/
Sergio Jimenez | @aceleraSJimenez
#24 Blancpain Racing | not on twitter
Peter Kox | @PeterKoxRacing
Marc A. Hayek | not on twitter
#26 Grasser Racing Team | not on Twitter
Sascha Halek | not on twitter
Tomáš Enge | @tomasengeracing
#27 Grasser Racing Team | not on Twitter
Hari Prozcyk | not on twitter
Jeroen Bleekemolen | @jbleekemolen
#33 ROAL Motorsport | @RoalMotorsport
Alessandro Zanardi | @lxznr
#34 ROAL Motorsport | @RoalMotorsport
Stefano Colombo | @Stefanocolo21
David Fumanelli | @DavidFumanelli
#60 Bhai Tech Racing | @bhaitech
Daniel Lloyd | @Daniellloyd23
Sten Pantus | @StenPentus
#61 Bhai Tech Racing | @bhaitech
Giorgio Pantano | @giorgio_pantano
Fabio Onidi | @FabioOnidi
#62 Fortec Motorsports | @FortecM
Armaan Ebrahim | @armaan_ebrahim
Benji Hetherington | @HetheringtonBen
#63 Fortec Motorsports | @FortecM
Miguel Toril | @MiguelToril
Nico Bastion | not on Twitter
#83 HTP Motorsport | @HTP Motorsport
Maximilian Buhk | @MaxiBuhk
Maximian Götz | not on Twitter
#84 HTP Motorsport | @HTP Motorsport
Sergei Afanasiev | @sergeiafanasiev
Stef Dusseldorp | @StefDusseldorp
#90 Villorba Corse | @Villorbacorse
Andrea Montermini | @andremontermini
Filip Salaquarda | @filipsalaquarda
A special shoutout to Martin Matzke who’s still injured: @MatzkeMartin
Get well soon!
Here are the most important sessions for the #CoupesDePâques:
Qualification, Saturday, 15.15 – 16.10 CEST
Qualification Race, Sunday, 14.15 – 15.15 CEST
Main Race: Monday, 14.15 – 15.15 CEST
The entry list for the #CoupesDePâques is here.
6 former F1 drivers in Blancpain Sprint
Never judge a driver purely on his Formula 1 results! But the ‘pinacle of racing’ gets a lot of attention and drivers are labled “former F1 driver” for the rest of their careers. In 2014, there are 6 former F1 driver’s in the field:
- Tomáš Enge (Grasser Racing | Lamborghini): 3 starts for Prost in 2001.
- Andrea Montermini (Villorba Corse | Ferrari): 20 starts for Simtec, Pacific and Forti between 1994 and 1996.
- Giorgio Pantano (Bhai Tech Racing | McLaren): 14 starts for Jordan in 2004.
- Nelson Piquet jr. (AH Competições | BMW): 28 starts for Renault in 2008 and 2009.
- Markus Winkelhock (Phoenix Racing | Audi): 1 start for Spyker in 2007.
- Alex Zanardi (ROAL | BMW): 41 starts for Jordan, Minardi, Lotus and Williams between 1991 and 1999.
Ther’s a life before and after F1. Let’s see which achievement belongs to which driver (easy to intermediate difficulty):
- GT1 World Champion in 2012.
- 2 times GT Open Champion.
- LMP1-Champion in ELMS 2009.
- Winner Mil Milhas Brasil in 2006.
- 2 times CART champion.
- GP2 Champion in 2008.
The 2014 Blancpain Sprint Series entry list for Nogaro is here.
Blancpain Sprint Series 