Sorry I have not revisited this topic after planning to do so for a while now. But let’s have a Captain Cook at the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship schedule and analyze it because it is fairly different from what many fans truly expected it to be. We have two venues that have been a part of WEC in the past, especially during the fabled LMP1 era, that will return. The series will not race at Sebring International Raceway alongside the 12 Hours of Sebring. That will turn back into what it was before and be the domain of IMSA which, frankly, will make it easier for yours truly to write about the action because there won’t be back-to-back-to back races then.
Interlagos, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, will also return to the schedule after being dropped several years ago and returning after about a decade or so I want to say, somewhere between eight and ten years. The interesting shifts in the schedule are a bit jarring. The season is now going to open in the Middle East, in Qatar, at the Losail circuit where Formula 1 has raced as well and so have world championship motorcycles. Not to be controversial, but the Middle Eastern oil opportunities are at least, I think, a part of factoring in the races there. Yes, motorsport is a lucrative business, and if we might still have petrol engines before things go completely electric, we will see this.
Even in an electrified age, we are still going to see energy usage from petroleum. It is not going to stop just because of the ideas of electrification since fossil fuel is still needed to produce electricity when you think about it. That is a different topic for a different day. But in speaking of such matters, it is reality that the world, and the automotive and motorsports industries must face in the sense that even with electrification we will still have elements out there that may or may not help with protecting the planet. That is a question that goes beyond the realm of motor racing, which is for philosophers and will not be discussed here.
So, Qatar will open the season with a weird distance of 1,812 kilometers of 1,132 and a half miles. Goodness knows what the significance of those numbers is. From Qatar we move to the European leg of the season and an interesting date and venue choice. Monza will no longer be the Italian location for WEC. Instead, they will race at Imola, Italy, at the Autodromo Enzo E Dino Ferrari located near Bologna, Italy. This is another historically significant circuit, don’t get me wrong. Formula 1 raced the San Marino Grand Prix there for decades and did run another event there recently, in the last few years, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
I think sports cars have raced at Imola before although I’d have to check my statistics that are buried within my encyclopedic sports car racing brain. I want to say it was almost 40 years ago, back in 1984, that the original FIA World Endurance Championship for Group C cars ran at Imola and I may just have to double check Racing Sports Cars to find that out. Ferrari should get as many fans at Imola as they will at the upcoming race at Monza. So, it shall be no worries for them. Their fanbase is worldwide. For other brands in the Hypercar ranks, we’ll see.
After Imola, round four brings us to the traditional 6-hour race at Spa Francorchamps which will always be on the schedule, pushed back to a mid-May date after being contested the final weekend of April in 2023. The 101st running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans follows a weekend later than this year, on the more traditional Father’s Day weekend date of June 15th and 16th, 2024. Here’s where things get interesting. After Le Mans, there will not be any more racing for the season in Europe. Le Mans will be the last event for the WEC in Europe in 2024.
From there, they will focus entirely on the flyaway races. This begins on July 14th, the middle of July for the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo in Brazil. That is going to be a steaming hot race if indeed they are doing it in the middle of the summer. So, even for a 6-hour event, that one just might take it’s toll on the drivers and for sure they will be in top condition to handle it because racing drivers are athletes after all contrary to what laypeople may tell you. After a relatively short summer break, the FIA WEC returns to the United States and to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
This is the renewal of the Lone Star Le Mans event which replaces the 1,000 Miles of Sebring which has been a tradition in March for four of the last five years and of course, the WEC did race a February event at COTA in 2020 before the pandemic. So, the series is no stranger to the Texas track. Two weeks after the Lone Star Le Mans, on September 15th is another traditional event, the 6 Hours of Fuji at Fuji Speedway in Japan, another race that really has been around since the ‘80s and the Group C days. That one is always fascinating and exciting to watch, and Fuji is a cool track, a cool venue.
That is also Toyota’s home track of course. The season closes on the first weekend in November, coincidentally on my birthday, November 2nd, with the second Middle East based event, the 8 Hours of Bahrain, which has been the curtain closer for the WEC at Bahrain International Circuit for some years now. Some symmetry in the opening and closing races being on the 2nd day of March and 2nd day of November for an eight-month season, and bookending at two of the big racetracks in the Middle East.
To opine, I see a clash between Spa and the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring which will be a bugbear because both of those races are well attended but having them on the same weekend, at two of the most legendary racetracks on the planet that are somewhat within driving distance of each other, that’ll be a real coin flip for the fans. I just have no clue what on earth the logic is with the FIA on that decision to hold the Spa 6 Hours on the same weekend as the big kahuna at the Nurburgring, unless of course, track management at Spa specifically said it was the only calendar date that they had available for the WEC to take up. That is also Mother’s Day weekend I believe. So, there’s another slight caveat.
In addition, the main attraction of the Nurburgring 24 Hours is GT3 cars racing in the top category. That is going to be a massive dilemma because there are several manufacturers who are providing customer cars for GT3 worldwide who will have a presence in WEC and at the Nurburgring. Although, I believe it is being said that there will be limits in WEC for LMGT3 of two cars per manufacturer. So, that may make it easier as far as finding drivers. But it is difficult to say. Imola, we will see how that turns out. The other race is Circuit of the Americas, that I am concerned about. Labor Day weekend in Texas = hot, hot, hot! Just like I mentioned Sao Paulo earlier in the year.
We’ll see how the races and venues turn out. But once again, with this schedule, the FIA earns the, what were you thinking? Award. I really wonder if they want to grow their fanbase because of the way this schedule is laid out, I really don’t know if that is going to help. It would be interesting to hear what drivers, teams, and manufacturers think about it especially with the factors of LMP2 being phased out gradually and GT3 coming into the picture as the de facto GT category for the championship. So, to sum it all up, this schedule leaves me and a lot of other fans out there with many more questions than answers.
Well, to put a bow on this situation, even with many questions remaining about the 2024 WEC calendar, as you have read already, there has been a resolution to the dilemma of the conflict between the 6 Hours of Spa and the Nurburgring 24 Hours with the Nurburgring organizers pushing the date back three weeks from the traditional running on the Ascension Day holiday. So, that addendum is also added to my editorial and should clear things up.
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