The essence of Grand Touring

While the GT3 category pursues its development from Spa to Macao and from Bathurst to Suzuka, its little sister, GT4, has spawned a raft of new series. The GT4 Nordic European Cup and GT4 Central European Series are set to begin in the coming months. The FFSA GT – GT4 France Championship kicked off the season during the Easter weekend on the Nogaro circuit. This gave us a chance to meet up with Stéphane Ratel, founder of SRO, and to talk about an essential element of the GT3 and GT4 Championships for which he is responsible - the Balance of Performance. The BoP evens out the performances of the different cars and gives fans and entrants an open, top-quality competition.

What is the origin of the Balance of Performance?

“Max Mosley (former president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, FIA) came up with the idea. In 1993, he recommended the introduction of a BoP in GT, which was a complete heresy at the time! Then in 2004, Maserati brought out the MC12 that looked like it would be far quicker than its rivals and would thus completely disrupt the FIA GT championship. I raised the question with Max who advised me not to refuse the car, but to balance it. We clipped its wings and that worked. In 2006, the Balance of Performance led to the creation of the GT3 category and not the opposite.”

How do you create a field of cars with balanced performances?

“We have a huge amount of data. Before the start of the season we test all the cars with top-level drivers on board. We don’t ask them to go as quickly as possible, but to measure acceleration figures and cornering at pre-determined speeds. The cars are packed with sensors and data loggers. Our technical director inputs all this information into his system and adds it to all the already-existing data we’ve collected from the many championships we organise all over the world - without counting those for which we have a franchise. The result is that all the makes have a chance of winning.”

In GT3 the cars have varied architectures, but almost the same dimensions and the same mass. On the other hand, in GT4 there are cars whose basic weight is between a ton and 1500 kg. How do you balance cars that are so different?

“You’re right. It’s a lot more difficult as in GT4 we’re almost back to where we were at the beginning of GT3 when you had a Morgan racing against an Alpina. Today in GT4 a Ginetta can take on a muscle car like the Chevrolet Camaro! In addition, this year a lot of new cars have arrived on the scene and you could say that we’re starting from a clean sheet. Obviously, we won’t get things right straight away, but the performance gaps between the cars will grow smaller and smaller as the races unfold. “

Motul partners the FFSA GT French Championship and Speedcar, Cool Racing, CMR, CD sport, IMSA Performance Orhès Racing and M Racing – YMR are Motul’s technical partners in the series.

© Dirk Bogaerts