DAGYS: Are you pleased with the amount of interested teams wanting to participate in the championship next year?

NISMO's Nissan GT-R and the Matech Concepts Ford GT are two of the new generation GT1 cars that will compete next year. (DPPI/FIA GT)

RATEL: At the moment, we have more teams looking at the championship than spots available. The selection for teams will be announced in mid-January. As of today, I have ten teams confirmed out of 12 available slots. So there’s not too many worries. There’s four or five other serious ones looking at the two remaining slots. The problem is that they all want to race the most proven cars. So the Corvette and Aston Martins are very popular and maybe some others are less popular. But they will come. If I have four teams wanting to run the same brand, I’m advising them to look at something else.

DAGYS: You’re careful not to call the marques “manufacturers” but instead “brands.” What’s the reasoning for only allowing privateers and no manufacturer teams?

RATEL: We’re not looking for direct manufacturer involvement. As Formula One is proving now, manufacturers come and go. Teams are always there. So I rely on teams and I hope brands will develop the cars for teams. I think we have to start with what we have.

DAGYS: Next year, we’ll see six different brands competing in World GT1. Given the fact that GT3 cars are very close in specification to the new GT1 machines, could there be an increase of GT1 brands in the years to come?

RATEL: Our mid-term objective by 2012 is to have 10 or 11 brands, two cars each. It’s possible and one that I dream of. It will start with six next year and will hopefully gain another four or five brands. If you look at what we have in GT3, and how easy it is to move into GT1, we could have 10 brands on the grid by 2012.

The Ford GT is the perfect example of the evolution from GT3 to GT1. If Audi, for instance, was looking at it closely, we could easily do a GT1 evolution of their GT3 car. The same thing could be done for the Alpina BMW. You really don’t have to invest much to make the car a new specification. You need to gain a bit of weight and more power. It’s nothing major.

DAGYS: You touched on your involvement in helping launch the Le Mans Series. Starting next year, the ACO will be adopting the new GT1 regulations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Le Mans Series events. How has the relationship blossomed over the years?

RATEL: Since I’ve managed to bring the FIA and ACO back together around the same table, it was a long-term job. But there was always the idea of having absolute common regulations, and now they exist. I know it created a bit of confusion when the LMS said they were going to a single GT formula. At least what they told me from the start, if they had a second [GT] class, it would be GT1. We do have cars and good brands building new cars. Now it’s rolling.

Could the Audi R8 LMS eventually make its way to the GT1 category? (DPPI/FIA GT)

DAGYS: While the GT1 cars are headed to the World Championship, the GT2 category from FIA GT will now compete in a standalone (privateer) European championship. Where do you see the future of GT2 standing, not only from your series perspective, but also from Le Mans-branded championships?

RATEL: As I’ve said on many occasions, you absolutely need two classes because the moment you mix factory teams with privateers, it destroys the category. GT1 didn’t die on its own; It worked in Europe for many more years. It was destroyed in America by GM’s direct manufacturer involvement. I can assure you, and I’m certain, that if you put BMW against Corvette with the high competition in GT2, you will destroy the category in the same way. You won’t have any customers who can afford to race those large budget teams.

So you need to produce the formula over and over again. When privateers don’t have a chance to win anymore, they leave. While GT2 destroys itself, privateers will move to GT1. And after they destroyed GT2, the manufacturers will go back to GT1. This is why I clearly don’t want direct manufacturer involvement, and they know it. That’s why you need two classes. You have to keep one class for the privateers and one class for the factories, or factory supported teams, depending on where you put the cursor.

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