Latest / Rusty's Garage / The Motorsport Brief | The Godfather of GT racing Stephane Ratel

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The Motorsport Brief | The Godfather of GT racing Stephane Ratel · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:06
  On this edition of the Motorsport Brief, we are joined by the man who I guess you could say is the godfather of GT racing.
• 0:11
  He's done some amazing things over the years.
• 0:14
  He's visiting Australia once again this year, so we thought we'd get a bit of a report card.
• 0:21
  Hi, everyone.
• 0:21
  Rusty with you for this edition of The Shortcast.
• 0:24
  Don't forget to check out Terry Morris to our latest feature episode.
• 0:27
  Two-parter there.
• 0:28
  And there's also a shortcast on the announcement of the Race of Champions going to New Zealand.
• 0:33
  Frederick Johnson and Chas Mostert joining us.
• 0:37
  Today we are delighted to be joined by Stefan Rattel from the SRO organisation who's been on the broadcast with me over time.
• 0:45
  But it's nice to sit down and chat with you from a podcast perspective.
• 0:50
  Your CV, I know Stefan says that you've worked around it for longer than 20 years and...
• 0:56
  But it is a 20-year anniversary for you this year, for SRO as we now know it, isn't it?
• 1:01
  What was it?
• 1:02
  May 2006 in the UK, I think, in Silverstone.
• 1:06
  That's a pretty special milestone.
• 1:08
  Yeah, 20 years of GT3, but my adventure with GT...
• 1:12
  Goes much back further, I know, doesn't it?
• 1:14
  Goes back 30, 35 years now.
• 1:17
  And the rebirth of GT racing is really since 1994.
• 1:24
  But GT3, which is our big success story, started 20 years ago, yes.
• 1:29
  Amazing.
• 1:30
  Tell me about what kicked it off for you, because there's a sort of an element of gentlemen wanting to go racing and sort of track days or outings with cars.
• 1:39
  How did it all really begin for you?
• 1:41
  The beginning of GT or the beginning of... Of your journey, of your journey into this space.
• 1:46
  I started working for a small French manufacturer named Venturi.
• 1:51
  Yes.
• 1:52
  And by organizing a one-make series with a concept at the time it was called the Gentleman Driver Trophy.
• 1:58
  The idea at the time, everything was about sponsors.
• 2:01
  The people that liked motorsport were sponsoring young drivers and they were...
• 2:05
  but the times of the gentleman drivers, like you imagine it, from the 20s to the 50s and 60s were somehow gone.
• 2:12
  And I wanted to revive that spirit, and I created the Gentleman Driver Trophy, which was a major success out of the box with a relatively unknown,
• 2:22
  French little car maker.
• 2:25
  We created at the time, we were the largest one make series.
• 2:28
  We sold more than 74 cars, something like that.
• 2:32
  And it became really a phenomenon.
• 2:34
  And by coincidence, the first race of the trophy, which was the first race I attended because I'd never had been to a race before.
• 2:41
  I was not coming from that world.
• 2:44
  Was the weekend after the worst edition of the 24 hours of Le Mans.
• 2:49
  And then the ACO saw this long line of GT cars.
• 2:53
  And then I told them, why don't you accept GTs at Le Mans?
• 3:00
  Because for 10 years, you only had prototypes at Le Mans.
• 3:04
  And then the ACO said, wow, yeah, we should.
• 3:06
  And then we started talking.
• 3:08
  And then I arrived at Le Mans in 1993 with...
• 3:12
  seven cars.
• 3:13
  At the time, you could just come with as many cars as you wanted, with seven Venturi LM's.
• 3:19
  And after Le Mans in 93, I had all my clients.
• 3:21
  They didn't want it to go back to the trophy.
• 3:23
  They wanted to run GT racing.
• 3:25
  And then I saw, oh, this guy has an F40.
• 3:28
  This guy has a Porsche.
• 3:30
  And we organized at the end of 93, the first...
• 3:33
  international GT race in Europe since the late 70s.
• 3:38
  And it was, it went like a house on fire.
• 3:40
  The Jürgen Barth joined me, Patrick Peter.
• 3:43
  And then we went on to create the BPR series with the F40 against the McLaren.
• 3:48
  And that's it.
• 3:49
  And then it became the FIGT championship and so on and so on.
• 3:53
  Was it something that you looked at and you saw a window of opportunity?
• 3:56
  You could see that these drivers and these cars needed a place?
• 4:00
  What was it that you saw?
• 4:02
  Really, the first idea was really to bring back the gentleman drivers and to offer a turnkey concept.
• 4:09
  The drivers were coming only with their helmet.
• 4:11
  Sometimes they even were forgetting it.
• 4:14
  And everything was ready for them because the factory was building the car then assisting the car.
• 4:19
  The second, but when...
• 4:21
  I relanced DT Racing.
• 4:22
  It was really, you know, at the time, it was a time of magazine, you know, newsstands.
• 4:29
  And looking at the newsstand, at the car section, I looked and the cover of most magazines were about sports cars.
• 4:38
  Grand Touring Cars.
• 4:39
  And I thought, if all these magazines always put a sports car on the cover, that must be that these cars are selling.
• 4:46
  It helped them sell the magazine.
• 4:49
  And aspirational, and that's really, from that moment, I saw the best-looking, best-sounding, most prestigious cars in the world must be at the pinnacle of world motorsport.
• 5:01
  And that has been my vision for 30 years now, and I keep pushing for it.
• 5:06
  Let's celebrate that then where we are today in 2026.
• 5:09
  I mean, correct me if I'm wrong here, 10 registered manufacturers competing across 46 sprints and endurance races, 29 events, Asia, America, Europe, and now proudly Australia.
• 5:23
  I mean, did you, when you set out on this pathway, did you imagine it would be what it is today?
• 5:28
  Well, I didn't imagine that our category GT3 that we launched 20 years ago would not only conquer our SRO world, but will also conquer, you know, become the main class GT class, the only GT class at Le Mans, would even replace the touring cars of DTM, would become the main class in IMSA and all of this.
• 5:49
  So it's really been a very successful journey, but...
• 5:54
  The parameters were right, and I saw we had every chance.
• 5:57
  You know, GT3 were, at least at the beginning, were affordable.
• 6:01
  They were, you know, it was the really right category.
• 6:05
  In the midst of all of that, whilst the gentleman driver or the customer racer might have been the focus, it's got a following with fans, it's got signature events all around the world at iconic places, famous racetracks too.
• 6:20
  It's become quite a thing in that regard, hasn't it?
• 6:23
  I mean, GT racing, even the BPR series, you know, at the time started was really built on the back of gentleman drivers that were teaming up with professionals.
• 6:33
  Then it got more and more competitive.
• 6:35
  In 97, it was factory racing with Mercedes against BMW.
• 6:40
  You know, it was against Porsche.
• 6:42
  Then it became all pro.
• 6:43
  Then it collapsed.
• 6:45
  Then it was again, you know, more gentleman drivers.
• 6:48
  And then it got professional again with the Maserati MC12 and all of this.
• 6:53
  But when we launched GT3, then it became even the GT1, FIA GT1 World Championship, which was fully professional.
• 7:01
  But then when we launched, GT3 was really to have a series for amateurs.
• 7:06
  While GT1 was professional, we wanted to go back to my old, you know, I always go back to the gentleman drivers because I think it's the safest place in motorsports.
• 7:15
  You know, when you have them, you don't rely on sponsors, you don't rely on manufacturers, you rely on people with a passion.
• 7:22
  Right.
• 7:22
  So I didn't want it to lose this clientele.
• 7:24
  That's why we launched GT3 as a new category for them.
• 7:28
  Until about 2011-10, when Audi came with the R8 LMS and the championship, the FI GT3 European Championship, which was the original one.
• 7:40
  was won by two young drivers, which are still, who are still racing in GT3 today, the two, Chris, Christopher Meese and Christopher Hasse.
• 7:49
  And this young driver winning this championship, backed by manufacturers, attracted a lot of young drivers.
• 7:57
  And that's how GT3 went from a gentleman driver's
• 8:01
  category globally to more and more professional and especially appealing to young drivers.
• 8:07
  I can see you light up when we talk about history, right?
• 8:10
  And you have celebrated the history this year too with, you know, racing for some of the great old cars that have come through over the decades too, haven't you?
• 8:20
  Even in partnership with Peter Otto, you know, Peter Otto is the historic organizer of Le Mans Classics and Tour Otto in France and all these important events.
• 8:32
  We created a new championship, the GT3 Revival Series, which has a lot of...
• 8:39
  big success in Europe and we even raced at Le Mans Classic this year with over 40 cars and it's great for us to to see this car even if they're not that old you know 15 years but they're they're they it's very nice they're noisier than the current car because at the time you didn't have many turbos you know they were all atmospheric engines so the sound is very very great.
• 9:01
  You can't go through your incredible story without, I guess, highs and lows.
• 9:07
  And you talked about some of those before.
• 9:09
  What do you think things like the global financial crisis, COVID and things, what did that stuff teach you and how tough were those periods to navigate?
• 9:22
  I mean, we had a couple of maybe our, you know, the...
• 9:27
  The really tough moment in the company was when we went for a world championship with all the costs associated to it.
• 9:35
  But it was just a 2010.
• 9:38
  We launched it in 2009 for the 2010 season.
• 9:42
  It was really a reaction against the gloom that had followed the financial crisis.
• 9:47
  We had to offer our teams and drivers something new, something exciting.
• 9:53
  Yeah.
• 9:53
  So it was ambitious.
• 9:54
  It worked at the beginning.
• 9:56
  When you think we had six manufacturers, two teams of two cars each, it was a phenomenal championship when it started.
• 10:05
  Unfortunately, you know, then the marketing return of having an FIA World Championship...
• 10:12
  didn't really match the cost.
• 10:13
  And we went through a bit of a difficult year.
• 10:15
  And especially the mistake was when the FIA launched for the 2012 season in partnership, the WEC in partnership with SEO.
• 10:24
  Then we tried to continue and that was not a good idea.
• 10:27
  That was a tough moment in my career.
• 10:29
  For the rest, it's been pretty much okay.
• 10:32
  From, as you and I talk here, the GT3 cars are on track.
• 10:35
  They sound amazing here at Sydney Motorsport Park, but we are doing this in the corporate suite for GT4.
• 10:41
  Let's talk about that because the variety of cars, the size of the grids, the kind of energy around GT4 has been fantastic.
• 10:51
  hasn't it?
• 10:51
  Yeah, GT4 is really the little brother of GT3.
• 10:55
  You know, GT3, in motorsport, some categories start with a bang, and some other take a long time to develop.
• 11:03
  And GT, the BPR series started, I mean, my career, the Venturi Trophy started with a bang, the Lamborghini Super Trophy, you know, the Diablo V12.
• 11:12
  That's also an amazing...
• 11:14
  souvenir for me.
• 11:15
  You know, when we were invited not once, but twice to the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
• 11:21
  Invited.
• 11:22
  They were taking care of the transport of the cars and we arrived with this V12 Diablos.
• 11:27
  That was phenomenal.
• 11:28
  That also started with a bang.
• 11:30
  The BPR series started with a bang.
• 11:32
  The FIGT championship started with a bang.
• 11:34
  The FIGT,
• 11:35
  GT1 World Championship was a success.
• 11:37
  And GT3 first season, we had 50 cars.
• 11:40
  I mean, it went like immediately and like a house on fire.
• 11:44
  GT4, so we had so much success with that.
• 11:47
  And we said, okay, in fact, a Belgian friend of mine came to me and said, you know, you should do the same thing for the little GT cars.
• 11:54
  And that's how we launched GT4 in 2007.
• 11:59
  So next year will be 20 years of GT4.
• 12:01
  But that has been a slow start.
• 12:04
  It took about eight years until Porsche came with a, you know, some tuner developed Porsche privately.
• 12:10
  But Porsche came with the Caymans.
• 12:13
  Suddenly it was a big success.
• 12:15
  And then all the manufacturers followed.
• 12:17
  And now it's a major category, which is in so many championships, either at the category or a standalone championship.
• 12:26
  And it's a success really all over the world.
• 12:28
  We have a very good championship in America, very good championship in Europe.
• 12:32
  Very good championship now in Australia with a fantastic grid.
• 12:36
  And it's really, you know, it's a good category, you know, financially.
• 12:43
  It's good fun for the money.
• 12:45
  I've had the pleasure of being able to work around it now for a few years and to see the Australian team in action.
• 12:52
  And it's given me a little window into how the business operates because you have offices in key places around the world.
• 12:59
  And those offices seem to, they interconnect, don't they?
• 13:02
  They work together.
• 13:03
  And, you know, one, you know, Europe might wake up and pick up something that Australia's done the night before and stuff like that, won't they?
• 13:10
  Our company is based.
• 13:11
  You have relatively small offices in every market where we work.
• 13:16
  And then you have a central operation that manages the sport, sporting regulation, technical regulation, BOP.
• 13:24
  You know, there is a structure like people manage.
• 13:28
  So you have manager for each championship and you have...
• 13:31
  category, you know, department manager, taking care of media, of sports, or globally.
• 13:37
  And this, you know, that works quite well.
• 13:47
  Can we get a little report card on how Australia is going?
• 13:51
  I think you and I saw each other at the Bathurst 12 Hour at the beginning of the year.
• 13:54
  Is this your second visit here this year?
• 13:56
  Yes, yes.
• 13:57
  How do you...
• 13:57
  I mean, I feel like, you know, it's professionally done.
• 14:02
  We are able to attract drivers like a Brock Feeney, a Ryan Wood, to come and complement some of the amateur races in GT3.
• 14:10
  We've just talked about the big grids for GT4.
• 14:12
  How do you feel like Australia's going?
• 14:14
  No, I mean, you know, it's really an undertaking to first start, you know, we initially took over the Australian GT Championship under the GT World banner.
• 14:27
  Then came GT4 with the opportunity.
• 14:30
  GT4 was there for a long time, but in the shadow of GT3, it didn't really emerge.
• 14:35
  Since it has been run as a one category series, like it is in other parts of the world, suddenly it made success.
• 14:43
  You know, the Bathurst 12 Hours is part of Intercontinental GT.
• 14:48
  So it's, you know, it's the second time I come to Australia, but it's the first time I come for GT World Australia.
• 14:54
  So it's different, but, you know, GT World, I mean, the Intercontinental is having a big success.
• 15:03
  Now it's really a very impressive series because you have the Bathurst 12 Hours, you have the Nurburgring 24 Hours,
• 15:13
  Verstappen was an absolute phenomenon.
• 15:16
  I don't think I ever saw as many people at an event.
• 15:20
  Then the Spa 24 Hours keep on growing and growing.
• 15:24
  It's really the biggest GT race in the world.
• 15:26
  I was last week in Suzuka for the Suzuka 1000 kilometers, and now we announce a partnership with Super GT to make it also a round of Super GT.
• 15:37
  So it's really...
• 15:39
  Intercontinental is really collaboration here with Supercars, with Super GT, with the ADATC in Germany, and that works.
• 15:48
  We love to collaborate with other promoters and to try to grow the sports.
• 15:55
  That's really the essence of what we're doing.
• 15:58
  And for GT World Australia, I mean, the package works, I think, with the Shannon Speed Series.
• 16:05
  The GT3 grid is not where we would like it to be,
• 16:09
  We are conscious that the cost of GT3 racing is not getting any more reasonable.
• 16:16
  You know, it's not the easiest budget to bring together, but we're doing everything we can.
• 16:22
  You know, we launched this SRO Academy, which the winner, if a young driver under 30, is the most, you know, there is an internal competition among young drivers and he can win a seat.
• 16:35
  in a full SRO car, entirely paid for at the Spa 24 hours.
• 16:41
  So all of this is to motivate, you know, also young drivers to come into GT3 from GT4 because now we have this big group of GT4 and our...
• 16:52
  we're aiming at that some of them are stepping up and come to and join GT3.
• 16:57
  I'm glad you bring up SROGZ Academy.
• 17:00
  I've spent a bit of time with Oscar Target this year.
• 17:02
  He's one of our hopefuls who's done, you know, exceptionally well.
• 17:07
  In a pathway sense, too, I mean, another great story is Cam Campbell and Josh Buchan, and they've been competing not just here in Australia but abroad as well.
• 17:17
  Because of that, you know, the platform that you're creating in a commonality sense, it allows you to go and do that.
• 17:23
  If you have the aspiration of going to race in, you know, at other major tracks around the world, you can basically, can't you?
• 17:30
  Yeah, you know, the fact that now we're running 18 championships on four continents.
• 17:37
  We had historically, we were helping drivers here and there, you know, when I saw a young driver that really had talent, we were giving him a little help.
• 17:46
  But I thought we could structure that better, you know, and really the idea of the SRO Academy, since we don't have single drivers formula, you know, you have either two drivers or three drivers,
• 17:57
  What we created was a concept, a competition where you take the performance of the drivers independently of the performance of his teammate.
• 18:06
  So it doesn't matter if your teammate is super fast or if he's not that fast, it's your performance, your qualifying time, your best lap time, your average best 10 laps and all of these that give your true performance.
• 18:21
  And if you make a mistake, you gain points and lose points if you make a mistake or you
• 18:26
  irresponsible in an accident.
• 18:28
  So at the end, it's a very, the most performing driver independently of his team, if I could say, and that's what we're trying to, but that's what we're putting together.
• 18:38
  And it has worked well.
• 18:39
  We started last year in the French GT Championship.
• 18:43
  We had, I think, seven young drivers competing.
• 18:46
  Now I think they're 14.
• 18:47
  So we hope the same thing will happen in Australia and that more young drivers will join the series.
• 18:54
  When you spoke about Max Verstappen before I lit up, because there's a story today, obviously, about who knows, and maybe this is more a question for the Bathurst 12-hour organisers, but people are excited by the fact that maybe the calendar for Formula 1 and commitments around testing and stuff might be open for him to contest the Bathurst 12-hour if, and that's a big if, I know, that would be a huge thing for this part.
• 19:20
  of the world, wanted to see him there.
• 19:21
  You know, we're very lucky this year because the number of intercontinental GT races don't clash with Formula One, including for the first time in a long time, the Spa 24 hours.
• 19:35
  When he was asked earlier this year, the weekend in Austria for the F1, a journalist asked him and said, you know, there is a Spa 24 hours this weekend.
• 19:47
  Will you be there or next year, would you go there?
• 19:49
  And he said, of course, if you don't in class, I'll go there.
• 19:51
  So I don't know about Bathurst, but he did express an interest to come to Spa and we hope we will.
• 19:57
  But we have all to, let's not dream because, you know, racing is about reality.
• 20:02
  Yes.
• 20:03
  And his first program is indeed Formula One.
• 20:07
  And, you know, you can always have new development, new testing, new whatever.
• 20:13
  So if he ever comes, it's a chance.
• 20:15
  If he doesn't come to Bathurst, to Spa, to returns to the Nürburgring, it will be fantastic for the sports.
• 20:21
  But let's not, you know, build fantasies around it.
• 20:27
  We'll see.
• 20:28
  Okay, a couple to finish here.
• 20:31
  Obviously, the announcement this week for Australia that Michael Massey is going to be involved in a sporting director sense.
• 20:39
  Tell me about how you feel about that.
• 20:41
  That's a great acquisition, isn't it?
• 20:43
  We want to, you know, we're taking things very seriously.
• 20:46
  In Australia, like in every other part of the world, we want to put the right...
• 20:53
  People in marketing, in sports, in technical.
• 20:57
  And it's, of course, a great addition to the team and shows and proves our total commitment in growing GT Racing in this part of the world.
• 21:07
  How do you juggle all of the pressures of competitive drivers, manufacturers that want to win?
• 21:15
  Balance of performance is the underpinning thing to try and keep the playing field level.
• 21:19
  What is that process like for you, trying to keep everybody happy?
• 21:23
  That can't be easy.
• 21:24
  No, I've always been a diplomatic person.
• 21:29
  I think we are fair people.
• 21:32
  We really don't care who's winning.
• 21:35
  We want our pride is to give the best possible BOP.
• 21:43
  What we need is the competitors, whatever their manufacturers, teams or driver, to trust us.
• 21:50
  And I don't think we would have six manufacturers entered in a GTC, 10 manufacturers entered in GT World Challenge globally.
• 21:58
  If they didn't do that, yeah, yeah.
• 21:59
  hundreds of teams and drivers if people didn't trust us.
• 22:04
  So that's the key.
• 22:05
  At the end of the day, you can always have a little bit of controversies here or a little bit of controversy there.
• 22:11
  But at the end of the day, I think people believe that SRO is doing the right thing and that we run the sport in a fair manner.
• 22:19
  Next year, Australia is going to Bathurst at the end of its championship.
• 22:25
  This year, we went to Hidden Valley in Darwin.
• 22:27
  We've always tried to give the teams and the competitors something a little bit different each year while still giving them great driver's tracks.
• 22:35
  We're at Sydney Motorsport Park tonight.
• 22:37
  We go to Phillip Island and things like that.
• 22:39
  That's a part of, I guess, what you want to offer up for the championship, don't you?
• 22:44
  Of course.
• 22:45
  I mean, we need good circuit.
• 22:47
  We need a bit of diversity.
• 22:48
  We do the same thing in Europe.
• 22:49
  We try to change.
• 22:50
  We have 10 events and one we change every year.
• 22:54
  You know, we were in Valencia.
• 22:56
  This year we are in Paulimau.
• 22:58
  Next year we go to Budapest.
• 23:00
  So we build events over time.
• 23:02
  And here at Sydney is definitely one of them, trying to get more spectators year on year to join.
• 23:08
  And also we want to add some diversity.
• 23:10
  But I think having an event in Bathurst, especially at the end of the season,
• 23:15
  will be very important because I want to believe that some European teams and drivers will see the opportunity to come to this event and test for the 12 hours.
• 23:25
  So it makes absolute sense to have an event at the end of the year in Bathurst.
• 23:29
  Clever.
• 23:30
  I love that.
• 23:30
  That's a really good lure for them to come and play here.
• 23:33
  Can we finish with, here we are in 2026, many decades after you,
• 23:38
  first started.
• 23:39
  We've covered the different continents and countries and championships that you look after, and it keeps growing, China and all this sort of stuff.
• 23:48
  Is there something still on your wish list?
• 23:51
  Is there a place you would like to go to race?
• 23:53
  Is there a manufacturer?
• 23:55
  What is in the pipeline for you?
• 23:56
  No, I mean, I'll always say, you know, for all these years, we build more championships, more...
• 24:04
  Now we've really built the house.
• 24:06
  The house of global GT racing is there.
• 24:09
  We have the FIAG, I mean, we don't, we just coordinated, but you have the FIAGT World Cup in the street of Macau, which is an event that I find amazing.
• 24:19
  You have the Intercontinental GT Challenge bringing together these five...
• 24:24
  amazing long distance events, which have to be the biggest one.
• 24:29
  Then we have the GT, as you said, the GT World Challenge with four continents.
• 24:34
  Then we have the national championships, mainly with GT4.
• 24:39
  We have this GT2 category that we continue pushing because we believe it's a good,
• 24:45
  you know, compromise between performance and cost.
• 24:49
  So all of this together, I think the house is built.
• 24:52
  Now what we need is to furnish the house and have more people visiting it.
• 24:56
  So that's what we do, you know, we improve.
• 24:59
  We like the partnership with Super GT at the Suzuka 1000 kilometers and more, of course,
• 25:06
  More manufacturing.
• 25:07
  I mean, you know, you have Toyota joining GT3, which is also quite a big news.
• 25:13
  And so new models being developed, new.
• 25:16
  And so for the moment, no revolution, but keep on feeling it.
• 25:22
  Okay.
• 25:23
  This has been fabulous.
• 25:23
  Thank you very much for telling a bit of the story.
• 25:26
  I hope you're not too jet lagged.
• 25:27
  And where are you off to?
• 25:28
  No, I was in Suzuka.
• 25:29
  Suzuka.
• 25:29
  Okay, you're in the roughly air.
• 25:31
  Are you back to Europe next?
• 25:33
  What's next?
• 25:34
  Oh, that's my life, you know.
• 25:35
  Next, I'm one weekend at home and then I'm flying back east to go to this amazing event we have in the streets of Beijing.
• 25:45
  Then the next one is in Indianapolis and the next one is in Portimao.
• 25:50
  You know, if anybody wants my life, it's a life of passion.
• 25:53
  But as I said, you know, when you go to motorsport like I do, it's like going to a religious order.
• 25:59
  Yeah.
• 25:59
  We are super grateful for your time.
• 26:02
  Thank you for sharing a little bit of the story.
• 26:03
  Congratulations.
• 26:05
  And we wish you continued success.
• 26:06
  Thank you.
• 26:07
  Thank you.