Events of the month

“It was not the easiest of weekends,” he confided while boarding the flight home. Stéphane Ratel is not only the master of his GT racing universe, but also a master of understatement.

The inaugural Baku World Challenge certainly had its challenges. The FIA GT Series championship finale would be fought out around a new street circuit on the waterfront of Azerbaijan’s capital city. It was never going to be easy, for organisers or drivers. Street tracks have their own special problems, especially in a country with precious little experience of motor sport.

“Baku is the new Dubai,” an oil company executive told me. “The Azeris have come a long way in a short time, but there is much more in the pipeline.” He was referring, of course, to the vast amounts of oil and gas in the Caspian Sea, the income from which is being used to put the former Soviet state very firmly on the international map.

There was a street race in Baku during autumn 2012, but the World Challenge was something altogether more ambitious: more cars, a new circuit and demo laps by some historic Grand Prix cars, plus the GT Series championship decider. The scene was set for a dramatic weekend but nobody could have predicted just how spectacular this
new event would be.

The Baku World Challenge was a joint venture between the Stéphane Ratel Organisation, promoter Jean-François Chaumont from Spa-Francorchamps, the FIA and the Azerbaijan government, with marshals drafted in from the Hungaroring. By the end of a rollercoaster weekend most folk agreed that this new event has enormous potential, speculating that Mr Ecclestone will be keeping an eye on the ‘City of Lights’ – so called due to its sparkling modern architecture.

It’s true that the circuit is still in need of some tweaks before it can be considered for a Grand Prix, but the layout along the waterfront is challenging and fast. The FIA was not happy with one of the chicanes, but that was sorted before the GT cars went out in anger. More bizarrely, the Tarmac was washed early on race day, forcing the FIA to declare a wet race on a beautiful sunny morning. These, though, are the teething troubles with a new circuit in a far-off land with no racing heritage and the Azeris are as keen as anyone to learn from these glitches. They have the wealth, the enthusiasm and the commitment. All they need to do now is immerse themselves in the inner workings of the sport.

The Audi R8s were clear favourites to take the title, and the vastly experienced Stéphane Ortelli was expected to be crowned champion by the close of Sunday afternoon. Into the first chicane they funnelled and Ortelli, in his Team WRT Audi, got the break he wanted when a messy multiple collision left poleman Niki Mayr’s Audi and Rob Bell’s McLaren limping back to the
pits for repairs.

Ortelli and Alon Day (Charouz Mercedes) initially held sway and, during the mandatory pitstops, Laurens Vanthoor took over the Audi and passed Day to assert himself at the front. Kevin Estre took over from Bell in the Hexis McLaren and so began a mesmerising drive through the field from eighth position, the Frenchman aggressively forcing his way to the front. Minutes from the end he passed both Alvaro Parente (Loeb McLaren) and Day at the first hairpin and chased after the leading Audi. There weren’t enough laps left for Estre, however, so the race and the 2013 championship went, as predicted, to Ortelli and Vanthoor. Almost two hours after the race, the stewards penalised Estre and Day for avoidable contact at the hairpin. This elevated the Parente/Loeb McLaren to second and put the Bell/Estre McLaren down to third, with Day/Maximilian Buhk back in fourth.

It was unfair on the Azeri fans, drawn in by posters urging them to ‘Come Feel The Power!’, that such a thrilling climax to the season ended in the stewards’ room long after they had left their seats. Still carrying their national flags, handed out free at the gates, they’d got back in their cars and driven home through the traffic as if they were on the last lap of a title decider. Baku in rush hour, we learnt, is a street race all its own.

None of this mattered to Ortelli and Vanthoor who picked up a cheque for €100,000, the 2013 FIA GT Series title and a fine race win in the inaugural Baku World Challenge. This was a fifth major GT title for the man from Monaco, making him one of the most successful GT drivers of recent times.

“I could not have done this today without the speed and talent of Laurens,” he said, “so thank you to him. I really can’t believe that we’ve won this race and it feels so good to do it with Audi. I am so happy, I am almost speechless.”

As the sun slipped down behind the skyscrapers, happy fans and weary officials made their way back to homes and hotels after a memorable weekend’s racing. Those of us who watched the Baku World Challenge wince its way through some growing pains will say “we were there” and hope to return. Despite all the hiccoughs, GT ringmaster Ratel remains optimistic.

“The concept is good,” he said. “We brought a grid of 28 cars and had a very competitive race – that is good at the end of the season. The city is beautiful, it has some great history and the location is excellent, not too far away, just between Europe and Asia. This could become an absolute classic, like Macau, no doubt about that. There is great potential here, for sure. Yes, there are some things to resolve, the tight chicanes – especially the first one – for example, but we must remember a street track is a street track. There is never enough space. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day F1 comes here.

“D’you remember? We were racing in China at Zhuhai in 1994, and a few years later F1 went to Shanghai. I don’t know, we will see.”

For now, many lessons have been taken on board and another title has been decided. A great many Europeans came away enthralled by the city of Baku, capital of a country that is going places as quickly as oil pours from the Caspian Sea. Rob Widdows