Five reasons to watch the GT World Challenge EU this year.
- Benjamin Crundwell
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Written by Benjamin Crundwell, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
The GTWC EU (GT World Challenge Europe) season opener will take place on Saturday, 12th April 2025, at Circuit Paul Ricard, commencing at 16:00 GMT. With thrilling racing between big names in the world of motorsport, here are five reasons to watch GTWC EU this year.
Varying formats across the season
While most championships follow a particular, pre-determined format for every race weekend, the GTWC uses multiple race formats throughout the year.
While being one main Championship itself, the GTWC EU series is split into two separate championships: the Sprint Cup and the Endurance Cup. Sprint weekends consist of two races, each lasting an hour long, featuring one qualifying session for each race.
The Endurance Cup consists of one race per weekend, lasting either three hours, six hours or 24 hours, such as in the famous 24 Hours of Spa. Endurance races bring greater challenges for teams and drivers, as cars must be more reliable and drivers need a higher fitness level.
Cars will be driven by two drivers in the Sprint Cup, while the Endurance Cup cars have three drivers. Qualifying for the Endurance Cup has three short sessions, and each driver must take part in one session per team.
The 10-race calendar is built with five Sprint Cup and five Endurance Cup races. The opening race this season will take place in Circuit Paul Ricard, a six-hour Endurance Cup race.
Four classes build the biggest grid since 2015
The GTWC often provides much drama, and in light of the quote ‘the more the merrier’: the 2025 season will host the biggest grid the series has seen since 2015 (then called the Blancpain GT Series).
The championship is split into four classes: Pro, Gold, Silver and Bronze, depending on driver rating. In the Endurance Cup, each car must have three drivers regardless of class; however, in the Sprint Cup, cars will only be allowed two drivers. These rules are changed for the 24 Hours of Spa, allowing teams to add one more driver. This exception doesn’t apply for the Pro class, though, who must stick to three drivers.
Pro cars have no driver restrictions, while Gold cars require one Gold driver and one Silver in the Sprint Cup, but two Golds and one Silver in Endurance. Cars competing in the Silver class may only be driven by Silver-rated drivers, while Bronze Cup cars must be driven by one Bronze driver and another from any rating. In the Endurance Cup, Bronze cars can employ an extra Silver-rated driver.
Having four classes provides fans with four different races to watch inside the main race, as well as focusing on the overall result. Usually, the overall race is won by a Pro team, but sometimes there is an ‘underdog victory’ if a car from a lower class can beat the Pros. The most recent time this happened was in Monza 2024, when the No.30 OQ by Oman Racing car won despite being Silver-rated.
In 2025, 18 Pro cars will be racing for the overall win, while eight Gold cars, 17 Silver cars and 16 Bronze cars will compete in their respective classes.
Famous names
GTWC plays host to some of the biggest names in sportscar racing. The last few years have seen MotoGP legend, Valentino Rossi, race for the iconic No.46 brand.
Reigning drivers' champions Lucas Auer and Maro Engel will return in the No.48 MANN-FILTER Mamba Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO. As well as the drivers' title, Auer and Engel won four races and secured three other podiums. After the 2024 season concluded, Engel even won the infamous one-off GT World Cup race in Macau.
Previously teaming up with Rossi, Pro driver Maxime Martin has switched from WRT to Boutsen VDS in the No.9 Mercedes. He will race alongside Luca Stolz in the Sprint Cup, and Maximilian Götz and Mikaël Grenier in the Endurance Cup.
Two-time race winner in DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters), Ricardo Feller returns for his eighth season in GTWC Europe. The Swiss driver won the Silver Cup in 2021, and finished third overall in last year's Drivers Championship. This year he will look to take his Porsche 911 GT3 R to overall victory.
2023 Le Mans winner Alessandro Pier Guidi will drive the No.51 Ferrari 296 GT3 with Vincent Abril and Alessio Rovera in the Endurance Cup. The No.50 Ferrari will be driven by Eliseo Donno, Arthur Leclerc and highly decorated driver, Antonio Fuoco, who helped Ferrari win their second successive hypercar Le Mans win last year.
Eight-time DTM winner Kelvin van der Linde will pilot the No 32 BMW WRT entry, partnering 17-time GTWC EU race winner Charles Weerts in the Sprint Cup. The duo will be joined by Ugo de Wilde in the Endurance Cup.
Many drivers prove themself in GTWC to prepare for an LMGT3 seat or a hypercar seat in WEC and IMSA championships. Previous GTWC winner Laurens Vanthoor is now racing in the Porsche 963 Hypercar, having recently beat his brother, Dries Vanthoor - a successful GTWC veteran himself, to win the Daytona 24 Hours.
Racing cars with God-given beauty
If you’re looking for the most beautiful racing cars, you don’t have to look further than GT3 race cars.
The GTWC is a field full of GT3s, with nine different manufacturers racing at every event. Several cars are based off road vehicles, but tuned for the racetrack. The beauty of GT3s is that they are eligible to race in multiple series under very similar regulations, such as WEC, IMSA and DTM.
There are no ‘works teams’ (manufacturers that race their own cars), as cars are raced by customer teams. The most popular cars with customer teams are Porsche, Mercedes and BMW, each of whom have six customers.
This is justified because in 2024, BMW cars won the Overall and Sprint Team Championships, while Mercedes won both drivers’ titles in the Overall and Sprint Championships. Ferrari took the rest of the spoils, winning the teams and drivers Championships in the Endurance Cup. The Italian marquee has five customers coming into 2025.
It goes without saying how beautiful the cars are, with gorgeous looks and iconic colours, it’s impossible to tear your eyes away from the screen.
Close racing, which is easy to stream from YouTube
Despite having nine manufacturers producing very different cars, the racing is still closer than most series, proved by three different manufacturers winning the available titles in 2024.
The close racing is made possible by Balance of Performance (BoP) BoP is the process of regulators putting restrictions on certain cars for power, weight, aerodynamics and even fuel capacity, in order to ensure car performances are as equalised as possible.
As a result of BoP, races can end up being extremely close, and drivers adopt a touring car mindset when they go racing, not afraid to bang wheels. In 2024, 10 cars from six different manufacturers won races, adding to the competitive nature of the championship.
Adding to this, the margin of victory in 2024’s Overall Drivers Championship was a mere 2.5 points. Meanwhile Team WRT won the Overall Teams Championship by only 14 points, a testament to the close racing the series possesses. .
All the action can be watched live on YouTube from anywhere in the world, with no cost or subscription required to tune in. Qualifying for the season opener starts at 11:50 local time (09:50 GMT) and the race starts at 18:00 local time (16:00 GMT).
The GTWC EU is definitely not a championship you should miss!
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