Why Franciacorta is nothing to be concerned about

The 2013 edition of the Superstars Series finished just under two weeks’ ago in Franciacorta, with the Italian title being handed to Gianni Morbidelli and Audi Sport Italia, just as in the International classification of the championship.

Although the Superstars Series has enjoyed a more than respectable average of 17 cars per race, the season finale at Franciacorta saw what seemed like a worryingly small grid of just six cars, which reduced even further to five for the two races due to Thomas Biagi withdrawing his Mercedes C63 AMG due to health issues.

Many have seen the event as a flop, and some have even hinted that the series was declining due to the lack of entries, but there’s more than meets the eye.

Franciacorta was a reschedule of an original event due which was due to be held at Adria, rumours say. The reasons why the weekend had a low number of entries lies in the history of the championship and its evolution.

The Superstars Series started in 2004 as an interesting concept and a small series, mainly based on Jaguars, Audis and BMWs and the technical rules studied by ORAL engineering, directed by former Ferrari F1 technical director Mauro Forghieri. The real buzz for the series came in 2007, when the series obtained the ‘International’ status by migrating outside Italy for the first time to Hockenheim, Germany. Two years later, an extra-european round was included as well.

The Superstars Series is heading in the international direction. This year the number of races held in Italy on the International calendar were just three – Monza, Imola and Vallelunga – and the championship visited several countries such as Slovakia, Czech Republic, Belgium, Portugal and the United Kingdom

The focus of SWR, the organisers of the series, has long been on encouraging teams and drivers to fight for the International crown. Hence the loss of popularity for the Italian title.

With just Gianni Morbidelli’s Audi and Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Mercedes fighting for the Italian championship, it was more of a matter of Audi trying to finish the year on a high and Mercedes looking for their maiden drivers’ crown (the C63 has only brought a teams’ championship to Romeo Ferraris so far, despite its competitiveness). Ermanno Dionisio was a welcome returnee to the series and made the races entertaining. The two BMWs driven by Nicola Baldan, the current Italian Mini Challenge champion, and Francesca Linossi, were the last cars on the grid. The competitiveness of the Bavarian cars has dropped dramatically in recent years as the M3 E92 loses pace compared to the newer cars from Audi, Mercedes and Chevrolet.

Franciacorta was not a flop, because it was not a race of the Superstars Series as we know it. The races were entertaining, but it was not much more than diving into the past, to those days in which a successful series was an interesting concept. The real health of the series should not be judged based on an event which did not enjoy TV coverage and was not even listed on the official calendar displayed on the Series’ website.

The facts are that in ten years the championship has grown from little more than club racing to start with to two former Grand Prix drivers battling it out for the title in works-backed cars.

Could the Franciacorta event not have been held at all? Maybe. However, the race was scheduled ever since the beginning of the season, and had the title battle been more than a Morbidelli-Liuzzi exclusive, the grid would have been slightly more crowded. The title everyone is fighting for, though, is the International Series.

It’s the one SWR will push for more and more in the coming years, making it fully international. It was useful, though, because people like Dionisio and series rookie Baldan could continue their adventure in the championship next year, with the latter, a former European 500 Abarth Cup champion, a good driver in perspective, much like Giovanni Berton – now a multiple race winner in the series – was when he tested for BMW Team Dinamic.

There’s nothing the fans should worry about. The series is in a good shape and has a bright future ahead, with several interesting rumors surrounding the 2014 season. Stay tuned!