March 2021 start for WEC season 9?

The suicide of the Aston Martin Valkyrie project, but even more so the Coronavirus crisis and the postponement of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will lead the ACO to completely review the calendars for the 2019-2020 WEC season and the next.

Published on 01/04/2020 à 08:05

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Initially, season 9 (2020-2021) of the WEC should have started on September 5, with the 6 Hours of Silverstone. But the postponement of the 24 Hours of Le Mans to September 19 and 20 due to the Coronavirus crisis will force the organizers to review their plans.

At the time of writing, the ACO, via its subsidiary LMEM, had not formalized the new versions of its calendars ELMS and WEC. As we had already mentioned, the planning of the European Le Mans Series should be simply shifted, while possibly going from 6 to 5 rounds.

As for the current season of the World ChampionshipEndurance, it could indeed still have 8 races, as planned. The next one would take place during the second half of August and could be held at Silverstone (with a double WEC-ELMS meeting). Spa-Francorchamps is overbooked during the summer, with two big events in particular, the 24 Hours of Spa (July 25-26) and the Belgian Grand Prix of F1 (August 30) which require a significant amount of preparation time.

But contrary to what was indicated after the postponement of the 24 Hours of Le Mans was made official, the 88th edition of the Le Mans classic may not serve as the final. The final round of the current campaign could indeed take place afterwards. An idea that only engages us: And why not at Sebring, as part of a joint meeting with the 12 Hours of Sebring, an event which will close theIMSA November 14? Wouldn't it be nice to end in Florida? The cost of such an operation remains to be assessed.

But this would not be without sense, because the following campaign could not begin until March 2021 and therefore… in Sebring. This would possibly allow the teams to leave some of the equipment on site. Enough to also offer more time for the teams to recover as much as possible from the looming economic crisis, and for the Le Mans Hypercar manufacturers additional margin to develop their cars.

What about next? Will the WEC restart for a Super-Season ending in June 2022 to remain on exercises spanning two calendar years? Unless this scheme, ultimately not so appreciated by the various protagonists, is abandoned. The question remains unanswered.