On Friday, the World Endurance Championship (WEC) announced a schedule adjustment for the last three races of the season.
Here are the schedule adjustments.
–The Belgian circuit of Spa-Francorchamps will host a six-hour race on August 15. That race had been scheduled originally for April 25th.
–The 24 Hours of Lemans in France, which was to have been run on June 13th and 14th, will be held on the 19th and 20th of September. Also, the race will start at 1430 hours instead of the normal start time of 1500 hours.
–Finally, a race that was completed earlier in Bahrain will be scheduled again in place of the Sebring race in Florida, which was to have been held in March. The rescheduled race at Sakir, which will finish the season, will proceed on November 21st.
All agencies–the WEC, the FIA, and the ACO, which runs the series–approved the revisions unanimously.
“The evolution of this global health crisis has left us with little choice,” said Gerard Neveu, CEO of the WEC. It is impossible to consider organizing an international motorsport event before the summer, so we have rearranged the calendar accordingly, while keeping the same number of events on the schedule.” Neveu went on to say that an adjustment mindset needs to be the order of the day: “We must be prepared for some big changes for next season because we will have to incorporate many parameters, starting with the inevitable economic difficulties that are to come.”
ACO’s Pierre Fillon, who runs the Lemans race, agreed with his compatriot, saying Friday’s announcement was “an exceptional decision for an exceptional situation.” And he emphasized that “the modification to the current FIA WEC has been established with full transparency and with the understanding of all concerned.”
Richard Mille
Richard Mille, head of the FIA Endurance Commission, added that “we did our utmost to guarantee that the current campaign will be comprised of eight rounds, ensuring equal terms for all competitors.”
“Bearing in mind the economic implications of the crisis and their impact on the industry,” Mille continued, “delaying the start of the next season until 2021 is the right thing to do, giving competitors enough time to regroup ahead of the following campaign.”
The 2020-21 year will be exciting for race fans. Among the changes are the introduction of new classes and the emergence of the Hypercar for the first time in the series.
