Alex Fontana will be on the starting grid of the International GT Open for the third consecutive year with a Porsche 911 GT3 R. However, at the dawn of the 21st season of the championship organised by GT Sport, there will be two important changes for the Lugano-based driver. Firstly, Alex will be racing with a new team, ZRS Motorsport, which is making its debut in the GT Open. The Italian team based in Rovigo will rely on the experience of the Swiss driver to extract the maximum potential from the new 911 GT3 R Evo (model 992.2) package, presented by the Weissach team in 2025 with the aim of improving the drivability and operating window of Porsche’s historic model. Given his extensive experience with the Porsche, Alex will be able to provide invaluable feedback to the Italian team. In addition, the Veneto-based team is itself accustomed to competing with the German manufacturer, starting with successes on home soil such as its triumph in the Silver category of the 2022 Carrera Cup Italia.
The second piece of news concerns the move to the Pro category, the premier class of the European series for GT3 cars organised by GT Sport. In the previous two seasons, Alex Fontana took part in the Pro-Am class championship in the dual role of driver and driver coach. This experience has led to continuous progress and important results, such as an overall pole position and three class victories between 2024 and 2025, with the icing on the cake coming in the form of a win in the 500 km of Monza. For the 2026 season, the Swiss driver will be joined by 20-year-old Pietro Armanni, fresh from his runner-up finish in the GT Cup Europe. Born in Lombardy in 2005, Armanni made his bones in Italy with karts and Italian F4, before stepping up to the European level in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in 2022. In 2023, he switched to covered-wheel racing with the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, while 2025 was the break-out year for the Italian driver, who came close to winning the GT Cup Europe title with two victories during the season.
The latter is known as the junior category of the GT Open, which trains talent in GT racing and in which Fontana himself competed in 2022. However, this was not his absolute debut in Jesús Pareja’s series of championships, as the Swiss driver had been crowned Euroformula Open champion – then known as European F3 Open – in 2011.
Compared to 2025, the GT Open calendar will feature an extra round at the Misano circuit in Italy, which Alex considers a “home” country due to its proximity to Switzerland’s Canton Ticino. The series will continue to follow the same format with sprint weekends consisting of two races lasting 70 and 60 minutes and two endurance weekends with a single 500 km race.
The complete calendar for the 2026 International GT Open:
- Portimao 17-19 April 2026 (sprint)
- Spa-Francorchamps 15-17 May 2026 (endurance)
- Misano 05-07 June 2026 (sprint)
- Hungaroring 3-5 July 2026 (sprint)
- Paul Ricard 17-19 July 2026 (sprint)
- Hockenheimring 11-13 September 2026 (sprint)
- Monza 25-27 September 2026 (endurance)
- Barcelona 23-25 October 2026 (sprint)
The second piece of news concerns the move to the Pro category, the premier class of the European series for GT3 cars organised by GT Sport. In the previous two seasons, Alex Fontana took part in the Pro-Am class championship in the dual role of driver and driver coach. This experience has led to continuous progress and important results, such as an overall pole position and three class victories between 2024 and 2025, with the icing on the cake coming in the form of a win in the 500 km of Monza. For the 2026 season, the Swiss driver will be joined by 20-year-old Pietro Armanni, fresh from his runner-up finish in the GT Cup Europe. Born in Lombardy in 2005, Armanni made his bones in Italy with karts and Italian F4, before stepping up to the European level in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in 2022. In 2023, he switched to covered-wheel racing with the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, while 2025 was the break-out year for the Italian driver, who came close to winning the GT Cup Europe title with two victories during the season.
The latter is known as the junior category of the GT Open, which trains talent in GT racing and in which Fontana himself competed in 2022. However, this was not his absolute debut in Jesús Pareja’s series of championships, as the Swiss driver had been crowned Euroformula Open champion – then known as European F3 Open – in 2011.
Compared to 2025, the GT Open calendar will feature an extra round at the Misano circuit in Italy, which Alex considers a “home” country due to its proximity to Switzerland’s Canton Ticino. The series will continue to follow the same format with sprint weekends consisting of two races lasting 70 and 60 minutes and two endurance weekends with a single 500 km race.
The complete calendar for the 2026 International GT Open:
- Portimao 17-19 April 2026 (sprint)
- Spa-Francorchamps 15-17 May 2026 (endurance)
- Misano 05-07 June 2026 (sprint)
- Hungaroring 3-5 July 2026 (sprint)
- Paul Ricard 17-19 July 2026 (sprint)
- Hockenheimring 11-13 September 2026 (sprint)
- Monza 25-27 September 2026 (endurance)
- Barcelona 23-25 October 2026 (sprint)
Alex Fontana
“I am excited about this new adventure with ZRS Motorsport in the GT Open. It is a fantastic environment and the races are really exciting. Although this will be my third full-time year in the main GT Sport series, there will be many new developments. I’d like to thank the entire ZRS Motorsport team for including me in this project. This will be their debut in the GT Open and it will be an exciting challenge. What’s more, the car is also new, but we’ll be doing our utmost to fine-tune to ensure that we can be competitive.”
“I am excited about this new adventure with ZRS Motorsport in the GT Open. It is a fantastic environment and the races are really exciting. Although this will be my third full-time year in the main GT Sport series, there will be many new developments. I’d like to thank the entire ZRS Motorsport team for including me in this project. This will be their debut in the GT Open and it will be an exciting challenge. What’s more, the car is also new, but we’ll be doing our utmost to fine-tune to ensure that we can be competitive.”