With the 2006 season set to kick off at Silverstone at the beginning of May, Peter Wright, president of the FIA GT Commission, answered questions to explain how the system works and why it has become necessary to balance the performance of the cars competing in the championship.

Q: How does FIA GT1 differ from other GT racing such as ACO (Le Mans), ALMS, and LMES?

Peter Wright: All international GT racing cars are built to common technical regulations, agreed between the FIA and ACO. Whereas the ACO sanctioned series encourage Manufacturers to enter cars, the FIA GT1 Championship is for teams who are independent of the Manufacturers.

Q: Why is it necessary to balance the performance of the cars in FIA GT1?

PW: GT1 cars are based on road-going Grand Touring cars, and come in all shapes and sizes. There are front-engined and mid-engined cars, with V-12s, V-10s, and V-8s. The Technical Regulations allow certain modifications for racing and set out to be fair to all configurations, balancing the various sizes and types of engines, and the weight.

However, to achieve close racing among the wide variety of cars, it was necessary to bring the performance of them closer together. The FIA therefore developed a Balance of Performance system that is based on exactly the same techniques and tools that the Manufacturers and top racing teams in Formula 1 use to develop and assess the performance of their cars. The system is applied to determine the performance of each model entered in the Championship, and to apply handicaps to balance the performance between them all.

An important consequence of this approach is to reduce the cost of developing a racing GT car from a road car. There is no longer any advantage in spending large budgets on development, as any performance increase will be handicapped. Equally, a Manufacturer with a road GT that is not ideally suited to racing can apply for waivers to allow their car to be run in a more competitive configuration and so avoid expensive development. The FIA wants to encourage GT cars to be raced, and wants as wide a variety as possible, just as it was in the great days of GT racing in the 1950s and 1960s.

Q: What was wrong with the old system?

PW: In the 1990s, GT racing became very popular and attracted TV coverage, with the result that it started to become an attractive marketing tool for the Manufacturers of GT cars. Instead of racing their road-going products, they built GT cars specifically for racing, according to the letter of the regulations but not the spirit, and then built enough road versions to homologate the cars. One or two marques dominated with their big budget teams, and before long GT racing collapsed as the independent teams could not compete and left to race elsewhere.

The FIA does not intend to let this happen again, now that GT racing has re-established itself and has become widely popular again, attracting the attention of the Manufacturers.

Q: How does the Balance of Performance work?

PW: The FIA develops a mathematical model of each car, working closely with the Manufacturer and/or the team developing the car for racing. The model is validated using data recorded by the car during testing and racing (there is an FIA specified data logger fitted to each car), and is updated after each event. Using the models, a simulation of each circuit in the Championship is made to determine the lap times for each car. Handicaps and/or waivers are applied to balance the performance of the cars over the duration of the Championship. Ballast weight, power (orifice diameter), and aerodynamic changes can be used to fairly balance the performance.

The models are updated each event, and in this way the FIA is able to monitor the performances and determine whether anything has changed, e.g. a better engine fitted, or aerodynamic and handling improvements. If a team or manufacturer has changed its cars, the handicap will be adjusted to re-balance the performance. In this way they are discouraged from spending large sums to try and gain an advantage.

Q: What about balancing the teams and drivers?

PW: The Balance of Performance system described does not attempt to balance the performance of either the teams or the drivers. The FIA’s performance analysis looks only at the fundamental performance of the car alone.

The FIA GT Sporting Regulations include a Success Ballast regulation that applies ballast according to results, and reduces it again in subsequent events if the car does not achieve a further result. This system takes account of the performance of both teams and drivers during each race throughout the Championship, and is completely automatic.

The two systems together maintain close competition between a variety of cars, independent teams, and both professional and gentlemen drivers.

Q: How successful is this approach?

PW: In 2005, the first full year in which the FIA balanced the performance in this way, four GT models shared the wins: Maserati MC12– 4 wins; Ferrari 550 – 3 wins; Corvette C5R – 2 wins; Aston Martin DB9R – 2 wins. The Team Championship was won by a Maserati team, and the Driver’s Championship was won in the final few laps of the last race by a Ferrari 550 driver. You can’t get much closer than that!

Q: What about balancing a given car on different tyres?

PW: Since the Balance of Performance system was put in place in 2005, this has not arisen. However, in 2006 it is anticipated that there will be several cars raced with different teams running their cars on different tyres. The Aston Martin DB9R, for instance, is expected to race on Michelins, Pirellis and Dunlops.

One possible approach would be to specify a single tyre supplier for the Championship, but it is part of FIA GT that the tyre companies can also compete, and they have become major supporters of the Championship. After much discussion between the FIA, the teams, the Manufacturers, the tyre suppliers, and the Promoter (SRO), it has been decided that the performance of a given car model will be determined by the performance of the fastest combination of that model and tyre. Cars running on different tyres will receive the same handicap as the fastest.

Q: Surely the fastest combination will vary from track to track, and the tyre suppliers will develop their tyres?

PW: The handling performance is monitored closely at each event, and assessed in both qualifying and throughout the race. The trade off between a tyre that is fast in qualifying but degrades faster during the race is analysed to arrive at a balanced assessment of handling. No changes to the handicap are based on handling at just one circuit; a minimum of two events are assessed before any change is made, in order to even out track-dependent performance issues.

Q: Who decides on the handicaps?

PW: The FIA GT Bureau, made up of:

- The President of the GT Commission who is the President of the Bureau

- The Director General of the Manufacturers’ Commission

- The President of the FIA Technical Commission

Any decision on the Balance of Performance must be unanimous.

Q: Doesn’t this mean that the FIA decides on the outcome of the GT Championship?

PW: No, the decisions are based on the analysis. There are certain thresholds of performance increase, and once a car exceeds these it is pretty well automatic that the handicap will be changed. The timing of changes can turn out to have an apparent affect on the Championship, but this is only because teams cannot resist developing their cars as they approach the critical last few races. If the balancing of performance did not make it so close, the last few races would not be so critical.