RNW Staff

Porsche Carrera Cup Japan champions NK Racing are stepping up to Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS next season with the all-new 992-spec 911 GT3 R.

Porsche tackles the 2023 motorsport season with ambitious goals, extensive works commitments and new options for customer racing. In the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the North American IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship, the Porsche Penske Motorsport works team pursues overall wins with two 963 hybrid prototypes fielded in each series. In the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team has set its sights on claiming the title with the new 99X Electric Gen3. Many Porsche customer teams will race the 992-generation Porsche 911 GT3 R on GT stages worldwide. Porsche announced its 2023 motorsport programme on Saturday evening at the “Night of Champions” in Weissach.

BMW M Motorsport returns to Australia after an enforced three-year absence. BMW M Team WRT will undertake its first works-supported race outing with the BMW M4 GT3 at the Bathurst 12 Hour, the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, in February 2023. This is followed by the GT World Challenge Europe which begins in April 2023. The two cars will be occupied by top-class drivers, including nine-time motorcycle world champion Valentino Rossi (ITA), who will share the #46 BMW M4 GT3 with BMW M works drivers Maxime Martin (BEL) and Augusto Farfus (BRA). Challenging for top results in the #32 car will be the two new BMW M works drivers Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts (both BEL), together with DTM champion Sheldon van der Linde (RSA).

Audi Sport customer racing has never won as many titles with its teams as it did this year. In the 14th season of the customer racing program, teams all over the world celebrated remarkable successes in individual competitions as well as in championships at sprint and endurance distances. The balance is spread across Europe, Asia, North America, Australia with New Zealand and, for the first time, Africa.

Porsche Cars Australia is pleased to announce its 2023 Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge calendar, with the National Porsche One-make Series featuring on a variety of Australia’s premier events throughout the year, ranging from Repco Supercars Championship rounds to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International.

In the 2022 season, Mercedes-AMG has continued its success story in customer racing with race and title wins in the world’s most significant GT series. The teams with GT3 and GT4 cars from Affalterbach raced on all six continents and racked up 63 teams’ and drivers’ titles as well as four manufacturers’ titles for AMG in the process. That is a new record in the twelve-year history of the Customer Racing programme. Highlights are three titles in the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC), the overall win in the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa, the ADAC GT Masters championship win and the title in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Powered by AWS manufacturers’ standings. Worldwide, the Customer Racing Teams competed in over 470 races and celebrated 80 race and 225 class wins while doing so. In total, over 600 podium results could be secured. The international competitiveness of the Customer Racing cars and the reliable worldwide support convinced both existing and new customers. As a result, over 240 Mercedes-AMG GT3s and over 180 Mercedes-AMG GT4 were delivered by this time. In the 2023 season, the new Mercedes-AMG GT2 further extends the portfolio.

The highly-anticipated 61st Rolex 24 At Daytona will kick off the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next month, and Wright Motorsports has assembled another impressive lineup to defend last year’s unforgettable victory. Ryan Hardwick, Jan Heylen, and Zacharie Robichon all return to the Wright Motorsports No. 16 1st Phorm Porsche 911 GT3 R (type 992) in defense of the win and will be joined by veteran Wright driver Dennis Olsen.

WeatherTech Racing will compete in the GTD Pro category for the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship kicking-off with next month’s season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, Jan. 28-29.

It was almost a feeling déjà vu at the conclusion of the 2022 Fanatec GT World Championship America Powered by AWS Championship – almost. While K-PAX Racing celebrated a duplication of the previous season, sweeping the series three major championships, in hindsight it did not come without new challenges. In fact, how the team reacted to this season’s unforeseen adversity casted a much different light upon 2022.

Leonardo Pulcini and Danny Formal have been announced as the stand-out drivers of Lamborghini Squadra Corse’s end of year Youngster Program shootout. Winning the GT3 Junior Program, Pulcini has been promoted to Lamborghini Factory Driver for 2023, while Formal is one of three drivers to graduate to the newly created Young Professional Driver category.

As anticipation builds for the 2023 Rolex 24 At Daytona, Wright Motorsports has announced the driver lineup of the No. 77 VOLT Lighting Porsche 911 GT3 R (type 992) for the approaching race season. Wright Motorsports champion Max Root will return to the Ohio-based team for the four IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship endurance races, while […]

Antonio Fuoco, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi led home a Ferrari and AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors one-two at the Gulf 12 Hours, while Daniel Juncadella secured the 2022 Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli drivers’ championship despite his GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG’s early retirement.

D’station Racing is returning to Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS next season when Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii reprise their race-winning partnership.

A hectic weekend for the final round of Thailand Super Series 2022 with a championship battle unfolding that saw the two almost level pegging title protagonists, Andrea Gagliardini and Jacopo Guidetti in the #11 Honda NSX GT3 and Sandy Stuvik and Akash Nandy in the #25 B-Quik Absolute Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II, going head-to-head in what would be nothing less than a winner takes all scenario.

GruppeM Racing will start Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli’s 2022 season finale from the front row after its Mercedes-AMGs went toe-to-toe in Gulf 12 Hours qualifying this evening.

The squad of works drivers at BMW M Motorsport for the 2023 season includes more prominent newcomers. Belgians Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts receive works driver contracts and join the BMW M Motorsport family. They will compete with BMW M Team WRT in the coming season, among other outings. The initial race programmes for the BMW M Motorsport teams and works drivers have also been confirmed. They include appearances in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with the new BMW M Hybrid V8, as well as starts with the BMW M4 GT3 in GT World Challenge Europe, the Intercontinental GT Challenge and the Nürburgring 24 Hours (GER). More race programmes – including the DTM that is undergoing a major transformation at the moment – are being planned and will be announced at a later date.

Under the umbrella of the DTM from 2023, the DTM will line up at the forefront of a strong German motorsport platform. Having acquired the trademark rights for the DTM, the ADAC is using synergies to create future-oriented and sustainable structures for the top classes on the circuit racing scene. On the way to introducing synthetic fuels in the future, the DTM will use an environmentally friendly and innovative fuel from Shell, made from 50% renewable components, as part of a new sustainability concept. The DTM’s tried-and-tested concept of one driver per car remains. The calendar consists of eight rounds and sees the series focus on Germany as the essence of the brand, without sacrificing outings at internationally-renowned circuits.

Mercedes-AMG continues to expand its Customer Racing programme: in the 2023 season, a GT2 model will complement the fleet of the successful GT3 and GT4 cars from Affalterbach. The new Mercedes-AMG GT2 is the most powerful homologated race car in the meanwhile twelve-year history of the customer sport programme. The GT2 offers the usual extremely high safety level of AMG race cars and comes with many new racing technologies. As a result, the GT2 version stands out as an attractive overall package for ambitious amateur drivers in particular. With the presentation of the new model, Mercedes-AMG underlines its ambition to take a leading role in international GT2 competition as well.

Next year marks the 34th season for the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland with an attractive race calendar featuring eight events in four countries. A total of 16 rounds with the 375 kW (510 hp) Porsche 911 GT3 Cup are on the schedule. For the first time since 2017, most of the Porsche Carrera Cup races will be contested as part of the DTM platform. In addition to six race weekends run as part of the German GT3 series support programme, the calendar includes a doubleheader event at the FIA World Endurance Championship WEC on the legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. The 2023 season kicks off there from 27 to 29 April.

The GT4 European Series has finalised its 2023 schedule, with Misano returning to the calendar as part of the traditional six-round championship.