Here is the thing about GT3 racing right now: the alarms are sounding, and the heavy hitters are starting to speak up. According to Motorsport.com Italia, discussions regarding the future of GT machines have taken a sharp turn since Stéphane Ratel flagged serious technical, sporting, and economic concerns back in June.
The core philosophy of the category has always been simple. Manufacturers build cars linked to road-going products, keeping things accessible for gentleman drivers and privateer teams. But recent moves by newcomers have started rubbing established players the exact wrong way.
This thing has already happened in the past with some manufacturers who have arrived, won and left.
Take Toyota preparing to bring its brand-new GR GT3 to Europe, or Genesis revealing a concept car built alongside Oreca before even producing the actual road car it is supposedly based on. Cyril Abiteboul himself admitted to striking similarities between the Genesis concept and the Ferrari 296, which is also built by Oreca. That kind of shortcut leaves a bad taste in the paddock.
Antonello Coletta, heading up Ferrari Races and Corse Clienti, is not holding back his thoughts. Speaking with journalists at Monza, he made it clear that Ratel's warnings are entirely justified. As Coletta put it: "The alarm raised by Ratel, in my opinion, makes a lot of sight. I believe that GT is a category that must be based on the activities of gentlemen, then clearly all of us Manufacturers have reference cars, and that can be fine."
Then came the direct warning about where the sport is heading. Coletta called it "very serious that there are manufacturers that build cars, sometimes even before launching the road product, with the intent of deploying only official teams, without selling them to customers or imposing prices so crazy that they will never sell them."
For Maranello, this brings back terrifying memories of how GTE eventually collapsed under the weight of runaway costs. Coletta warned against letting GT3 turn into a playground for prototype-style factory efforts that price out the privateers who keep the ecosystem alive for decades. "If we have to start making prototypes even in GT it is not good," he stated. "This thing has already happened in the past with some manufacturers who have arrived, won and left."
Now, the ball is firmly in the governing body's court. Coletta insists that the FIA needs to step in forcefully before the category loses its soul entirely.
