FIA WEC puts winter season plans in action

A long time wish for the FIA World Endurance Championship will in fact become reality as the long-awaited winter season calendar will start right in 2018, as announced by the FIA and ACO, which comes along with a lot more changes to the competition.

The goal in mind was to have the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the main event of the championship, as the season finale, but with the transition that specially the prototype side is facing, the FIA and ACO felt that now is the time to put the winter calendar into place.

In between the transitional period, the 2018/2019 calendar, dubbed 'Super season' will start with the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and will end at La Sarthe, with the next two editions of the French endurance race being featured in the next calendar, and the same thing will happen with the Belgian round. Fuji and Shanghai preserve their places, while Sebring makes a return since it opened the FIA WEC in 2012, with a race still to be announced, which will complete the reduced calendar, going from nine to eight events. With this, Silverstone, Mexico and Austin were chopped off the competition, while Bahrain is unlikely to stay.

What surprises the most is the approach taken in the 12 Hours of Sebring, as the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship will stay with the classic timing of 10 A.M. to 10 P.M., while the FIA WEC race will start midnight to end at noon, making it two races around the clock in the same weekend.

The Super Season calendar still awaits approval from the World Motor Sport Council, but it's looking like this right now:

April 5^th-6^th, 2018– Prologue (Paul Ricard)

May 5^th, 2018– 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

June 16^th-17^th, 2018 – 24 Hours of Le Mans

October 14^th, 2018– 6 Hours of Fuji

November 4^th, 2018– 6 Hours of Shanghai

2019, in February – Event to be confirmed

March 15^th-16^th, 2019 – 12 Hours of Sebring

May 4^th, 2019 – 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

June 15^th-16^th, 2019 – 24 Hours of Le Mans

PHOTO: FIA WEC