List of FIA GT Champions

The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series for Grand Touring (GT) cars administered by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motor sport's regulatory body, and promoted by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO).^[1][2] It was founded in 1997 by the SRO and FIA vice-president Bernie Ecclestone as the successor to the BPR Global GT Series, and it was the third motor racing championship to bear the FIA name.^[3][4][5] There were two classes when the series was launched in 1997: Grand Touring 1 (GT1) and Grand Touring 2 (GT2). The GT1 category was dropped following the 1998 season because of rising costs and GT2 was re-branded as GT in 1999.^[2] In 2000, the N-GT category was introduced as a secondary category to the GT class.^[1] For 2005, the two categories reverted to the GT1 and GT2 titles, and the series was superseded by the FIA GT1 World Championship at the end of the 2009 season.^[2][6]

The series awarded international championships or cups to the most successful drivers, teams, and manufacturers in each of the series' categories over the course of a season. Points were awarded based on individual race results, with the highest tally of points winning the respective championship or cup.^[7] Points were awarded to the top six finishers from 1997 to 2002.^[8][9] This was modified in 2003 to allow the top eight finishers to earn points.^[10] Bonus points were awarded to participants who had completed six and twelve hours of the Spa 24 Hours race from 2002 until 2008.^[11][12] The highest awards in the series were the FIA GT1 Drivers' Championship and the FIA GT1 Teams' Championship, both of which centered around participants in the GT1 category.^[7] The champions were not officially crowned until the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony held in Monaco in December following the conclusion of the season.^[13]

At the end of the 2009 season, 30 drivers won an FIA GT title. There were 17 drivers who won a Drivers' Championship in either of the GT1 or GT2 categories and there were 15 racers who won titles in either of the GT or N-GT classes.^[14] Michael Bartels, Andrea Bertolini and Christophe Bouchut were the most successful FIA GT Championship drivers with three championships each.^[15][16] In six seasons, only one driver was crowned champion in their category, rather than two, because their regular co-driver did not participate in all of the races. German drivers won more titles than any other nationality with eleven, followed by Italian racers with ten and French drivers with six.^[14][16] Vitaphone Racing Team won the most Teams' Championships in any category with five and AF Corse were in second place with four championships. Ferrari were the most successful car manufacturer in the series with three Manufacturers' Cup titles, ahead of Maserati with two.^[15]

A Manufacturers' Cup was introduced for the 2005 season and was awarded in both the GT1 and GT2 categories through 2007; it was not awarded in 2008 and was limited to the GT2 class in 2009.^[1][29]

The Citation Cup was introduced by the SRO in partnership with Cessna Citation in 2007 for non-professional racing drivers participating in the GT1 category over a series of eight rounds.^[36][37] There was a lack of eligible non-professional drivers throughout the 2008 season, so the FIA moved it to the GT2 class for seven races in 2009.^[38][39]

• Official website (Archived)