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STÉPHANE RATEL – THE GODFATHER OF GT WORLD PT.2

Fraser Masefield
1 month ago
10 min read

In the second of a two-part exclusive with SRO founder Stéphane Ratel we talk about Balance of Performance as a key objective, how advances in technology and sustainability will affect the series and what the future holds.


MT: GT Racing as we have established, has many categories and many strands. What do you mean when you say the key difference is Balance of Performance?

 SR: The Balance of Performance, as I have said many times before, is our pride – and our prime objective with it is to put everybody together.

Having everyone within one tenth of a second is the perfect objective but it’s a very, very difficult environment because today in the world of BoP, people actually ask more than they do from a one-make series.

Stéphane Ratel

If you look at the Porsche Supercup, or LMP2 in European Le Mans – where all the cars and tyres are the same – the difference in performance is no bigger than what it is in GT racing, with 10 different manufacturers on the grid!

But if you are three-tenths away from pole, you’re going to put it on BoP. That’s the nature of the game.

READ PART 1 OF THE LONG STÉPHANE RATEL INTERVIEW

So BoP is basically blamed for everything. And we know we can’t reach the perfect objective. Perfection is impossible.

You have so many factors. The cars are different: they don’t have the same architecture, or the same engine. To have everybody so close is already a miracle.

Max Verstappen and Mirko Bortolotti during the 24H Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany on May 16, 2026. / Joerg Mitter / Red Bull Content Pool

It’s a very interesting exercise. If you look at a  24-hour race such as Spa, the cars start with a BoP that doesn’t change for the full duration of the 24 hours.

And you can see very clearly the variation of performance of the cars within the 24 hours, because they react to it.

The two key factors are temperature and grip, and they don’t react the same way.

Consequently, you see an evolution, or a variation of their relative performance over the 24-hour period.

Max Verstappen during the 24H Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany on May 17, 2026 / Philip Platzer / Red Bull Content Pool

That’s very interesting and shows in itself that BoP cannot be an absolute exact exercise, because it will still vary according to so many parameters, including atmospheric pressure.

If you have a storm coming and the atmospheric pressure becomes different, that has an influence on turbo engines. So it’s very complex.

But I think at the end of the day, if we have so many cars, if we have so many manufacturers, with new ones coming and some hopefully returning, all of this shows that we must be doing something right.”


MT: Technology is developing so quickly, isn’t it? How is the sport going to adapt? Are we going to see the introduction of hydrogen, biofuel, or even electric racing? How do you see it developing over the next few years?

SR: “Along with many people in our company, I am very conscious of the environmental situation we’re in. And we want to do the best for our sport.

This is a fact, and over the last six years we have developed a programme at SRO that aims at reducing and if possible, annihilating our carbon footprint.

We have also introduced 100% certified sustainable fuel developed by Total Energies. It is a 100% biofuel produced from waste and residues, and we use it in GT World Challenge Europe and Asia.

Ayhancan Güven during the 24H Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany on May 16, 2026 / Philip Platzer / Red Bull Content Pool

Also, we collect a carbon contribution from all our teams, which we reinvest in a number of independently certified environmental projects.

We’ve been talking about hybrid systems for many, many years too. I think the FIA puts hybridisation back on the table every five years or so, and that’s been happening for about 20 years now.

Copyright Craig Scarborough

The problem is that optimisation of real hybrid systems in motorsport is extremely expensive. So you either have a gimmick – a little hybrid just to pretend you’re hybrid – and that’s a greenwash, or you go into real hybrid technology.

Max Verstappen at the Nürburgring in Germany on March 31, 2026. / Joerg Mitter / Red Bull Content Pool /

Unfortunately, if you look at the cost of real hybrid technology, whether it’s in Formula One or hypercars, it’s absolutely not suitable for customer racing.

Our grid and customer racing only works if we have something affordable for what is already an extremely expensive sport.

You need drivers with budgets, you need sponsors, and you need manufacturer support to be able to sustain this budget.

The minute you take costs to a level where they become unsustainable, the category will collapse in the same way that other GT categories have collapsed before.

Ayhancan Gueven during the 24H Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany on May 14, 2026 / Philip Platzer / Red Bull Content Pool

So, as of today, I don’t see hybrids being realistic in the foreseeable future. As for electric racing, we worked for five years on a project named GTX, which stood for GT Experimental.

And for this to happen, we’ve been waiting for the manufacturers to present proper GT electric cars that would be sold to real customers and allow us to put together an innovative concept.

Our plan was for a bit of a combination of circuit racing and rallying, which centred around exposure as we would expose the cars in city centres along the way.

Luca Engstler during the 24H Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany on May 16, 2026 / Philip Platzer / Red Bull Content Pool

Efficiency was key, because this would be like an eco-rally, where you measure the efficiency from city to city, and also you have competition, because along the way you would have run on circuits, rally stages, and hillclimbs.

That was the basic concept, with a five-day rally style event going from Paris to Berlin, for example.

Stéphane Ratel

READ CRAIG SCARBOROUGH’S INSIGHT INTO MAX VERSTAPPEN’S MERCEDES AMG GT3

We wanted to revive the Targa Florio in Sicily too; this kind of event. Unfortunately, after trying for many years, we don’t really see the right momentum as of now.

The project has been put to one side for the moment, but as soon as the sportscar manufacturers and the GT manufacturers have cars ready to go, we will certainly pull it out again and try to do it.

Max Verstappen and Dani Juncadella during the 24H Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany on May 17, 2026. / Joerg Mitter / Red Bull Content Pool

When we started that conversation five or six years ago, I really thought we would have the electric GT cars out there on the market by now and that we could have a product adapted to these cars.

In the end though, we sell sensations and we sell pleasure. And matching the pleasure of a Lamborghini V10 with an electric car is always going to be a difficult sell.”

Jules Gounon of Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing during the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany on 17. May, 2026. / Sebastian Kraft / Red Bull Content Pool

MT: If you were to get your SRO crystal ball out, where do you see GT World in 10 years’ time?

SR: “When I think of what we have created with the FIA GT World Cup on the streets of Macau and the Intercontinental GT Challenge with its major endurance races, and then GT World, with 10 manufacturers, it’s all very positive.

What I see in the future is that it can become more and more popular – and that we can attract more spectators and then more followers and that the category can continue to grow.

In life, you need to have an idea to succeed: an objective and a firm belief in it.

And despite the difficulties along the way, you have to continue believing in it. For me personally, 30 years ago, it was the time where you had many, many, many car magazines everywhere on newsstands.

Jules Gounon of Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing during the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany on 17. May, 2026. // Sebastian Kraft / Red Bull Content Pool /

About 70% of those car magazines had GT cars on the cover. Why? Because it was making the magazine attractive and people would buy it.

So my vision and belief at the time was to have the most prestigious, inspirational, best looking, and best sounding cars at the pinnacle of motorsport.

Or at least near the pinnacle of motorsport. That was my strong belief 30 years ago, it’s still my belief now, and I continue working on it to this very day.”

Max Verstappen during the 24H Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany on May 16, 2026 / Philip Platzer / Red Bull Content Pool

MT: You are a clearly a racer at heart but how much of a competitive racer are you?

SR: I’m actually not a racing guy, you know. I started off entirely as a promoter, and then racing came later.

I started the Venturi Trophy, and I did a bit of club racing, but I never thought I was a racing driver.

Stéphane Ratel

I raced from time to time just to have fun and I stopped entirely from 2001 to 2021…but then I went back.

And it’s true that I don’t want to be just a businessman in racing: I want to continue enjoying my passion.

Stéphane Ratel

So now I try to do two or three races a year, but entirely for fun. It also helps you to keep fit; it’s a fantastic sport.

But it’s just a hobby; the pleasure we provide to our clients is definitely the most important thing for me always.”

Stéphane Ratel

Fraser Masefield

Fraser is a sports and motorsports editor with over 25 years experience. The former head editor of WilliamsF1, BMW Motorsport, Jaguar Racing and Virgin Media, he has also worked for Autosport, ESPNF1 and Eurosport amongst others.

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