Pirelli starts 11th season as sole supplier to Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe
The 2023 season of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe marks the 11th year that Pirelli has been the championship’s exclusive tire supplier. This season will see nine new cars make their debut and the Monza and Nürburgring racetracks returning to the calendar. The season opener will take place at Monza this weekend (April 20-23), with the latest GT2, GT3 and GT4 models making an appearance for the first time.
Pirelli will supply its P Zero DHF tire – which made its debut in 2022 – to all teams during the 2023 GT World Challenge season. The DHF has been developed by Pirelli to complement the evolution of the GT cars while placing a larger emphasis on sustainability compared to previous tire designs.
During development, Pirelli used virtual modeling instead of physical prototypes to ensure the DHF’s environmental impact was reduced. The P Zero range designed for the GT World Challenge and its support categories also uses new types of renewable materials to further reduce the environmental footprint.
Several changes have also been announced by series promoter SRO, with the new Ferrari 296 GT3 and Porsche 911 GT3 R appearing alongside revised versions of the Lamborghini Huracan and McLaren 720 GT3 models. The new BMW M4 GT4, McLaren Artura GT4, Mercedes AMG GT2 and Porsche GT2 EVO will also make their debuts. The Spa 24 Hours will also take place four weeks earlier on July 1-2, 2023, with 72 GT3 cars competing at the 75th anniversary event.
Several new teams are set to compete within the championship – Comtoyou Racing (Audi), CLRT (Porsche), Pure Racing (Porsche) and Theeba Motorsport (Mercedes-AMG) – and other notable changes include WRT moving from Audi to BMW, and Iron Lynx swapping from Ferrari to Lamborghini.
“The launch of new models from manufacturers – who have often involved us right from the testing and development phases – as well as incoming teams from other series underlines the health of this series, which is capable of attracting new stars and a growing number of fans at every race,” said Matteo Braga, circuit activity manager, Pirelli.
“This emphasis on innovation, which corresponds perfectly with our own approach to motorsport, requires constant technical, organizational and logistical updates – with significant benefits for us when it comes to developing new products and technology.
“The GT World Challenge has proved once more that it’s one of the most challenging and rapidly growing championship in motorsport. Being at the forefront of it all and supporting the many changes this year is a huge technical and logistical motivation for us.”
