Csaba Varga

Sim racer, all things motorsport, project manager, Real Madrid fan

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

Join me for a ride as I'll be providing access to full TV camera set contents in #AssettoCorsa , modelled with unmatched accuracy and based on real-world race broadcasts. I'll be covering the best circuits ever created for this title - sign up here!
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[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@JaroslavHonzik This is incredibly sad inho - LMU had the BEST netcode of all sims right up to 1.3, an aspect they were beating iRacing in COMFORTABLY - and they somehow managed to give that entire advantage away... 😔

[VIRginia International Raceway @VIRNow]

The Michelin GT Challenge is underway!

@IMSA | @MichelinRaceUSA

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@007GameIOI Yeah? Maybe the 1.0 version soundtrack, before the rearrangements due to the Lana del Rey motive licensing mess-up...

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@ScarbsTech I think 'crashed by DeCesaris' doesn't narrow down possibilities too much 😂

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@VincentJBruins Hmm, about that pace + execution for McLaren! 😅 #pain

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@VincentJBruins Are they allowed to run the DTM rear wing in GTWC now?

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@VincentJBruins When will McLaren have the speed AND the execution in the same race (championship ?) ever is still a ? mark.

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@VincentJBruins Any other driver & I would suspect a concussion after the Norisring accident - but for KDVL, it's actually normal to crash this much (Green & the Dempsey car)

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@coachdavesetups @LeMansUltimate But Team LMGT3, to give you a proper social media interaction as well

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@coachdavesetups @LeMansUltimate

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@JaroslavHonzik "Go straight!" 🤣

[Vincent Bruins 🧡 @VincentJBruins]

Ratel started: "I had, what I consider, a very important meeting with the ten manufacturers involved in GT3. There I told them that if they want to continue like this, we're going straight into the wall. I reminded them what the four pillars of GT3 are. The four pillars of GT3 are that we had production cars referred for racing, that we had a category that was built on being cost effective, that we had customer racing and that we had a clear identity of GT sports cars. I have been quite, I'm not gonna say rude, but I've been straightforward to all of them saying 'because of you this has happened, because of you this has happened, because of you this has happened, because of you this has happened'." He points at the costs which, relatively, are going through the roof and he points at the designs of GT3 cars, which are getting increasingly out of hand.

"The president of the [technical] commission was very pleased to see these new beautiful cars. And I don't deny it, they're beautiful", Ratel continued. "But then you see what was written in the press release of Genesis, who clearly said: 'We are building a car to the maximum extent of the technical regulations to get the maximum performance from which we will homologate the car for the road.' It's not even GTE, though with the second generation of GTE it started going sideways. But it is the definition of GT1."

He is giving the stakeholders, the FIA and the manufacturers two clear choices: "Either they want to go that way, fine, but I agree to propose with the next technical commission to name it GT1, because it's GT1. If you build a car to the maximum framework of the regulations and you're homologated, that's a CLK GTR Mercedes, that's a Porsche GT1. They are beautiful cars, and all these cars today are worth more than ten million euros, so it's fine with me. I like racing, and I like beautiful cars. But the very sentence of saying 'we want to design a car to the maximum of the technical regulations, and on the basis of that we're going to make a road car on homologation', this is the Mercedes CLK GTR, this is the Ford GT1, this is the Maserati MC12, we have had all of this. You design a car to the maximum regulation and then you register it for the road. This is GT1. While GT3 is to take a road car and then you adapt it for racing."

The second choice Ratel presents is to intervene on the technological side of things instead of doing nothing except changing the name GT3 to GT1: "What you can do, is you need a point of judgement and we all know when a car gets radical. That's it. You need to have a referee. The problem you also have now is that the new generation of road cars have hybrid systems that take up more space, they need space for batteries. So, many of these cars are getting bigger and heavier. Therefore it's more difficult for some of them to turn them into efficient race cars. I think naturally we will see manufacturers doing specials. I think that will be the trend that we can't entirely reverse. But then you need a referee, who says: 'Okay, you start from a car that is a bit of a special, but this special needs to have the look and feel of a road-going GT car.' That is the concept what we've seen from Toyota and the shared opinion with the FIA is that it seems to be in the right direction."

If a car crosses the line in terms of size or aerodynamics, the FIA ​​and the SRO could force a manufacturer to modify the design. "Governing is predicting, so we need to have some system that looks at a car and says: 'This is definitely too radical.' Look at the history. I mean, it's easy. When we had the 550 Maranello against the Aston Martin DBR-9, against the Corvette CR6, and then the MC-12 came… A 10-year-old could see the difference. That's very simple. You just need to have a clear mind and say: 'No, this is too radical. You go back to the drawing board and you come back with a car that fits the spirit of the regulations and is like a sports car normally used on the road.' Otherwise, there is a perfect new category, which is GT1, for which the cars exist. It's beautiful, we have the GT1 Sports Club. You see many of these beautiful cars. You could have cars like the Aston Martin Valhalla. But those have a different price and it's a different world."

Ratel gives examples of how he envisions the system and compliments Porsche's approach. "We all know what a supercar is or a hypercar, you call it what you want - the top, top, top of the class. The F80 or before that the LaFerrari, which they used to make the FXX, is not a GT3. At Ferrari you have the 296, the base model. And I always say, look at Porsche. I mean, I think in GT racing we all kind of look at Porsche. They carried it for decades. You have the Porsche GT3, it is the 911, and this is a GT3 that corresponds with the 296 that corresponds with the Audi R8 that corresponds with the AMG GT. This is the class of cars we're racing in GT3. Then I look at Porsche and they had another [911], but with 700 horsepower that could be a GT2 car. That's what we did. We said, 'if you have 650 to 720 horsepower, that's a GT2', and that's another type of car. And then you look at Porsche again, and you have the 918. Or take the LaFerrari. Those are ultra cars. We used to call them hypercars, but now hypercars mean something else at Le Mans. So, this is another line of cars. And in that class, you can develop very special cars to go racing, which will of course be more expensive, but would be the GT1 class."

With more new manufacturers showing interest in GT3, the Frenchman is essentially proposing a reset. "I heard about Chinese manufacturers that are looking into [GT3, alongside Genesis]. When you have potential newcomers, you need to redefine the concept. What is a GT3? Where are we? What is the line of budget? Where do we want to be from a design standpoint? From a price standpoint? From a customer racing relation? It's all the pillars I told you about earlier, which need to be addressed in GT3. We need to address the price, we need to address what these cars are in their segment and what the segments should be, and the customer racing part of it has to be defined and has to be mandatory. If we have that, I strongly believe that GT3 can remain, but it's a question of choice for the FIA and for the manufacturers, if they want to drift towards more spectacular cars and to more expensive cars, if they think they and their teams have the budget."

Ratel sees some of the doubts current and new GT3 teams are having, when purchasing a car for the category. "For the moment, I'm really just alerting and saying it's drifting. It's drifting on cost, and I'm not going to give specific examples, because I don't want to point to any of the manufacturers, but there are clear examples of where one pushed this advantage, another one pushed what he wanted, another one pushed what he wanted, another one pushed what he wanted. At the end of the day, we are in a situation where… As an example, after the [Spa Speedweek] with GT2 and British GT, some people came to me. When you have a GT3 team today and you're running two Audis or two Mercedes… These cars, don't forget, the Audi and Mercedes were sold new at €400,000 and they have used them for years. Now they need to replace them and it's like a wall in front of them. You're talking about cars that are not at all the same budget, and not only to buy, but also to run. So, these people start looking and say, 'oh, we've seen your GT2 and you know, a Maserati GT2 is €400,000'. We're back to the price of what GT3 was."

The founder and CEO of the SRO continued: "I'm really concerned that if we start having an attrition [or drop] of GT3 cars on the market… Even if they were GT1 cars, new GT1 cars, you will always have eighteen cars on the grid. Maybe the grid here [in the 24 Hours of Spa] won't be sixty, seventy cars anymore, but you will have thirty, forty cars, or you will have twenty cars in IMSA. That's not a problem. But GT3 is everything, right? Not only the championships we promote, but even championships we don't promote. The likes of Creventic [24H Series], the likes of GT Open, the likes of all these championships around the world that run GT3 cars, are essential, because it is customer racing. And it's all these cars that also allow the manufacturer to produce many of them, to sell many of them, and in a certain way, normally, to keep the price at the reasonable amount."

Ratel looks at the organizer of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship and has a similar idea. "I was very interested to see my friend [president Pierre Fillon] at the ACO at Le Mans, where they presented the Hypercar category for 2030. I really think that for GT3 we should now redefine everything and propose an evolution, a clear reassessment of what the category should be [in the future]. So, then we know and the new people that are looking at it know… That's what I propose to the manufacturers."

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@Motorsport Assetto Corsa (1), Grand Prix 4 - toss up. LMU is also great for me.

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@VincentJBruins Bit rich to start complaining so soon & so hard (lowkey threatening), coming from the man whose teams dominated e.g. Sprint Cup in the past DECADE & has generally had favourable BoP in Endurance/IGTC up until this year...

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@IntercontGTC @Customer_Racing @PorscheRaces @GTWorldChEu @ThomasPreining1 @24HoursofSpa Hope Mercedes and Engel can negotiate an exception with the DTM team for him to continue in IGTC considering how this season panned out for them - they're in prime spot & an IGTC drivers' title always looks good, both in CVs and manufacturer press books.

[MV33Racing🏎 @MV33Racing]

🚨 Max Verstappen would love to take part in the 24 Hours of SPA in 2027 and has spoken to the organisers about scheduling the event so it does not clash with Formula 1.

“Of course, I would love to be able to race at Spa. I have already told them that, for next year, it would be ideal if they could schedule it outside a Formula 1 weekend, but we will see. SPA is an amazing circuit; a 24-hour race with only GT cars is something really special.”

Who is ready for another GT3 weekend? 😍

[RN365]

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@sportscar365 @24HoursofSpa @VincentJBruins Interesting decisions 👀

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@VincentJBruins Some quick cars to come through the field tomorrow! - I also expect a Ferrari (and Audi) nerf and a BMW and Porsche buff; if latter two would be right, I don't know. They were obviously sandbagging, but the scale of it was such that I'd be surprised if it didn't melt SRO's hearts

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@SakerSport Not a hair out of place - impressive!

[Csaba Varga @atticvs2]

@VincentJBruins 😂😂