The ACO and FIA World Endurance Championship are once again engaged in discussions designed to bring a third World Championship crown to the WEC in 2017.
Alongside the current World Championship titles awarded for the LMP1 Manufacturers and overall Drivers titles the FIA WEC has previously requested a third, for the winning GT Manufacturer.
The earlier requests though were rejected as, in parallel, FIA President Jean Todt pursues a proposal for a separate World Championship for GT3 spec cars though it is not at this point lear whether the current plan is for that title to be awarded via participation in existing events, or with a series of new events.
The GTE manufacturers though feel strongly that such a new series is not sustainable, one senior manufacturer representative telling DSC:
“The reality is that we would be spreading ourselves very thinly. Such a move could only do harm to an existing FIA Championship which, currently, is growing in commercial sustainability. It effectively would see Manufacturers forced to make a choice, and that is not smart at this point.”
ACO President Pierre Fillon confirmed in Shanghai that the move was a priority with Gerard Neveu maintaining that, even with the current quartet of Manufacturers, their performances on track are absolutely at the level appropriate for a World Championship.”
He agreed too that the case gets progressively stronger as more manufacturers join the GTE ranks.
Current programmes from Ford, Aston Martin and Ferrari are set to be joined in 2017 by a return from Porsche with both BMW and Potentially Lamborghini set to join in 2018 and with McLaren known to be working on a programme too, likely for 2019.
Endurance Commission President Sir Lindsay Owen Jones is the man tasked with the background lobbying involed in moving a proposal forward:
“I’m in Geneva next week to attend the FIA Senate and I will be seeing Jean Todt at some length and obviously its one of the subjects that will, again. be on the table.
“It’s a normal aspiration of our GT competitors. I feel it has a lot of merit but as you know also the FIA is extremely parsimonious with the concept of World titles, which I respect.
“They have the right to make it very exclusive and very difficult but I do think that our GT manufacturers today have a very strong case to put that the Championship deserves better recognition so I will be supporting that idea.”
The final decision on whether to award a title sits with the World Motorsport Council, and they are, it is understood, to be asked formally to consider the proposal in advance of the 2017 season.
