Abu Dhabi: Stephane Ratel, the founder and promoter of the GT1 World Championship, is confident the new series will form an integral part of the FIA calendar and declared that it will not be a "retirement home for Formula One drivers".
The Yas Marina Circuit played home to the championship's historic debut race last weekend, a day after FIA President Jean Todt had said the world governing body for motorsport will soon establish a hierarchy among the many events which comprise the calendar so as to ensure competitive world championships.
Though it's still early days for the FIA-sanctioned championship that's been 15 years in the making, Ratel said Todt's initial reaction to his brainchild had offered him plenty of encouragement for the future.
"[Todt] was at the launch in Paris and he was speaking very highly of the world championship," Ratel told XPRESS. "We've just started and we don't pretend to compete with Formula One. We are just going to try to do the best we can. We are the commercial promoter and it will be our success or our failure, nobody else's. It's up to us to bring TV, good teams, top drivers and if we can make it work we will," he added.
Petrolheads across the UAE did turn up to witness the high-octane action on track over the two days, although the vast number of empty seats in the main grandstand was easily noticeable on the Saturday. However, Ratel believed he had accomplished his primary goal. "The level of competition was very good. The promotion here was good. I know it's difficult to attract a large public here. But our ambition was to be second best to F1 and from what I've heard we were the best attendance when compared to GP2 and Australian V8. So we reached our objective," he said.
"It was a reasonable attendance and I think it's something to build on. You can't expect to come with a new championship in a place where we've never been before, there's no national driver in the championship, and have people flock to the circuit. You need time to build events," he added.
The presence of ex-Formula One drivers like Mika Salo and Romain Grosjean should help raise the profile of the championship but Ratel underlined his ambition to make the GT1 brand unique. "When you become a very professional championship and when you have a world title, it's normal that teams need good drivers, and Formula One drivers are good. We don't want to become a retirement home for Formula One drivers because we also need our own young sports car aces," he said.
