The FIA's GT1 revival talks are real, but smaller than they sound
“GT1 revival” is a phrase to stir any endurance fan, conjuring McLaren F1 GTRs and Mercedes CLK GTRs. What the FIA is actually discussing is a good deal more modest.
Reports over the past couple of weeks have suggested the FIA is working to bring back GT1, the legendary category, using today's halo brands. DailySportsCar pressed the FIA for clarity, and the answer is that there is something to it, but a lot less than the headline implies.
The FIA confirms it has held discussions, initially informal but structured, after a small number of halo manufacturers asked for a regulatory framework that would let their cars earn some form of competition certification. Crucially, officials stress this would not mean circuit racing. If anything comes of it, it would be limited to timed display or “Time-Attack”-style events.
Why “GT1”, and why it is misleading
The GT1 name is doing a lot of work here, just not the work you would assume. The FIA is using it only as a recognisable marketplace label for cars of stratospheric performance, a clearer shorthand than “Hypercars,” a term already taken. It is explicitly not part of the current racing pyramid, not related to today's GT3 cars, and not connected to the LMP and Le Mans Hypercar families. It is also separate from the SRO's existing hypercar demonstration events. In other words, “GT1” here is a description, not a racing class.
Where it came from, and who is interested
The idea traces back to 2023, when a handful of manufacturers approached FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who then suggested they seek a formal framework. Structured but informal talks have crept forward since, slowly building toward some kind of consensus. The brands in the frame are the usual rarefied names: Bugatti, Koenigsegg, Pagani and Gordon Murray Automotive, the same company we just saw gathered at the Zoute Gallery.
Gordon Murray's letter says more than the FIA does
The most concrete, and most eyebrow-raising, detail comes from GMA. The maker of the T.50s is writing to customers to say it is raising production of its new S1 from 64 to 75 cars, specifically to preserve the option of developing it for racing. That 75 is not random: GMA's letter cites a proposed minimum run of 75 road-homologated cars as an eligibility requirement, and claims Ben Sulayem has “given a mandate to his team to start a new racing class ‘GT1’” where the likes of Gordon Murray, Koenigsegg, Pagani and Bugatti “could compete with race cars derived directly from their production vehicles.”
The letter goes further still, raising the prospect of the S1 “competing on the international stage, potentially including future endurance racing events.” That, DailySportsCar notes, goes well beyond anything the FIA has actually briefed. Whether it is an enthusiastic ownership group getting ahead of itself, or a hint that the talks quietly include bigger “if this works” ambitions, is the open question.
AutoNext Take
There are two ways to read this, and the truth is probably in between. The cautious FIA version, sanctioned timed runs for hypercars that currently have nowhere official to stretch their legs, is genuinely useful and overdue. Owners of multi-million-euro Bugattis and Koenigseggs have no certified stage to actually use them, and a Time-Attack framework would fill that gap without pretending to be Le Mans.
The romantic version, a true GT1 class with Paganis and Gordon Murrays going wheel-to-wheel, is the one that sets pulses racing and the one to be sceptical about. The economics that killed GT1 the first time have not disappeared, and the FIA is visibly managing expectations. For now, read “GT1 revival” as a hopeful headline attached to a smaller, saner idea. If it grows into more, it will be one of the best stories in the sport. It just is not that yet.
