15.10.2004 The Maserati MC12 is cleared to enter the 2005 FIA GT Championship by the World Motor Sports Council, who also announce new regulations AND a provisional calendar

The World Motor Sport Council met in Paris on Wednesday, and a number of major decisions were resolved concerning the 2005 FIA GT Championship.

The most eye-catching decision was, that following the analysis of Maserati’s performance in the last three races of the Championship by the FIA, the homologation of the awesome Maserati MC 12 has now been fully approved.

The highly controversial MC12, which made its racing debut last month at Imola, before winning for the first time next time out at Oschersleben, was allowed to take in the final three races this year without being eligible for championship points.

Without doubt next year, this new pretender will be the car to beat, although as yet no teams have been announced. Maserati made their long awaited return to top-line motor racing this year, in 2005 the Trident marque will be looking to further glory, and of course adding their name to the championship trophy.

The World Motor Sport Council also decided that the current GT-class name will be replaced by GT1, while the smaller N-GT category will become GT2. The maximum number of events in the Championship will also be pegged at twelve.

The series will once again be made up of races run over a distance of 500km, or a maximum duration of three hours, while it has been confirmed that the showpiece Spa-Francorchamps race will continue to run over a twenty four hour period.

However, the most interesting news is that long running efforts, behind the scenes, to draw together the FIA and ACO rules, seems to have paid off, with the announcement that, "As from 1st January 2005, new GT1 Technical Regulations will come into force in order to facilitate joint FIA/ACO regulations."

This move will undoubtedly please the FIA GT teams who also take in Le Mans. At present they are faced with making costly modifications to switch their cars to ACO specification for the 24 hour race, and then having to switch them back to FIA GT regulations immediately afterwards.

The provisional calendar for the 2005 season was also released. The series will return to seven tracks used during the course of this year: Monza in Italy, Magny-Cours in France, Brno in the Czech Republic, Spa in Belgium, Oschersleben in Germany, as well as the circuits in Dubai and China.

Silverstone comes back onto the calendar, replacing Donington Park, with a round planned for mid-May, while new locations to be visited include Istanbul, Bahrain and Japan. A number of dates and locations are yet to be determined, while others are provisional, pending ASN confirmation. 

FIA GT Championship 2005:

10 April I Monza, 1 May F Magny-Cours, 15 May GB Silverstone, 29 May CZ Brno*, 31 July B 24h Spa, 28 August D Oschersleben*, 18 September TR Istanbul**, 9 October CN TBA, 23 October J TBA*, 25 November BRN Bahrain, 2 December UAE Dubai*

* subject to ASN confirmation ** subject to circuit approval