GT World Challenge Europe Comes To Paul Ricard
- therookiereporters
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
The GT World Challenge Europe kickstarts their season this week, starting with Circuit Paul Ricard in France. But, what do you need to know?
This is round one of the season, meaning fans and drivers are both as eager as each other to get going. The race is 6 hours long, one of two longer formats on the calendar, and starts into the evening with cars driving into the night, bringing some amazing shots for photographers. It takes place at the Circuit Paul Ricard and is 5.79km long with 15 turns, giving plenty of chances for overtaking and thrilling racing. The circuit is known for its long run offs, making it forgiving in terms of mistakes, whilst reducing the amount of cars that unfortunately find the barriers.
Here is the schedule for the 11th-12th April.
12:05 - 13:15 CET - Qualifying
18:00 - 00:00 CET - Race
This is the first round of the season, and for many will act as the benchmark for the rest of the season, it sets out who will be the ones to watch. There is also more pressure on this weekend, as more points are available than on a sprint weekend. For many teams, these points can make all the difference.
In terms of the ones to watch, there are multiple. For many, this weekend brings a focus to guest runner, Lance Stroll. Stroll will be making his debut in a GT3 race, teaming up with Mari Boya and Roberto Mehri to race an Aston Martin Vantage GT3. But how will he fare?
Many big car manufacturing names compete in this series, such as BMW. The BMW team, having paired up with big motorbike name, Valentino Rossi, are aiming to start the season off with a win, making it their third consecutive. Rossi on his own is one to watch, being a well known bike rider, means he brings in a demographic of fans and helps boost the sports viewership.
Another manufacturer to look out for is Mercedes-AMG, so far this year, their GT3 car has proved itself to be fast and a challenger. It’s shown great speed at the Nordschleife and pre-season testing has shown it to be fast at Paul Ricard. But will that transfer over to the race?
Article written by Imogen Moggridge © Imogen Moggridge 2026
