The Blancpain GT Sprint Series begins this month, taking the great racing seen in the Blancpain Endurance events and distilling them into shorter rounds. If our experience
at Monza
this weekend for the Endurance first round is anything to go by, the Sprint series will be fantastic.
Alex Zanardi's debut in GT racing will of course draw much attention when the field reaches Nogaro. In this video he explains how BMW has modified its Z4 GT3 for him. The throttle, clutch and gearchange are hand-controlled (just in case the clutch wasn't hard enough to master on a GT3 car already) but the brake is foot operated. Zanardi's prosthetic limb rests on the pedal with all the effort of course coming from his hip. It looks fiendishly difficult, with his hip permanently at a set angle. But this being Zanardi it's just another challenge to overcome in his latest racing challenge.
The test results from Paul Ricard had Zanardi's #33 Z4 a couple of seconds off the pace, with the Bentleys leading the way in fact. No doubt that gap will be closed as the season progresses. It should make for a fascinating watch.