There was little question in 2015 that a number of top teams managed to make the most of their driver combinations where both were classified as ‘silver’ ranked drivers, in fact the top three teams in the championship featured silver-silver ranked driver combinations, something which Motorsport Asia has looked at closely over the off-season.

“Driver grading’s are always a contentious issue, it doesn’t matter where in the world you are,” David Sonenscher, the CEO of Motorsport Asia admitted.

“That said, it was clear that a number of teams took advantage of the silver-silver combination rules as they were last season, and managed to make the most of them, something which became a point of discussion amongst their rivals a number of times last season.

“Last year we invested in data-acquisition with Race Technology in the UK (who are also responsible for the systems used in the Blancpain Series in Europe), and alongside them we were able to work through accurate data which helped us to adjust the parity of the cars on track – which was met with strong support from the teams – and we’re using that data again to determine the ideal parity adjustment for silver-silver partnerships for 2016.

“Ultimately we’re going to deliver an additional pit stop compensation time for silver-silver driving partners during the mid-race compulsory pit stops [CPS].

“We’re still determining what that time will be, and will release details of that shortly, but we believe an increase in their ‘stop’ time will create a more level platform for other teams to be able to compete on an even footing with their – predominantly – Gold-Bronze [Pro-Am] driver lineups.”

The opening round of the 2016 GT Asia Series will get underway at Korea International Circuit in South Korea with a pre-season test scheduled for 9-10 May ahead of the opening round of the season which begins on 13 May.

2016 GT Asia Series – calendar