The FIA GT3 European Championship will visit the Smolensk Ring in Russia as part of six event calendar for 2011 that will see it, again, spend most of the season supporting the European rounds of the GT1 World Championship.
The championship will return to the Algarve, Silverstone and Paul Ricard – all of which hosted a round of the series in 2010, but in a rearranged schedule the Portuguese Portimao track will be the season opener. The Spanish round of the championship shifts from Jarama to Navarra, where the GT3 field will support the GT1 World Championship, as it will in Portugal, France and the UK
The final two rounds are additions to the previous season, with the Russian visit pencilled in for August 28, though the track still needs to be homologated by the FIA. The season will come to an end at Zandvoort in October. Neither event will share the paddock with the GT1 series.
In another change for 2011, the scheme of success ballast used in 2010 will be replaced – for “safety reasons” according to the FIA – by longer pitstops for faster cars – the same scheme that will be used by the British GT Championship.
The winning car from the previous race will have an extra 15 seconds added to their minimum pitstop time, 10 seconds for the second placed car and five for the third place finisher from the previous race.
These penalty seconds will be 'awarded' after each race and will not be cumulative during the season.
2011 FIA GT3 European Championship
May 8 – Algarve, Portugal
June 5 – Silverstone, UK
July 3 – Navarra, Spain
July 17 – Paul Ricard, France
August 28 – Smolensk Ring, Russia
October 16 – Zandvoort, Holland