FIA WEC CEO Frédéric Lequien is very proud of the newly-confirmed eight-round calendar for the FIA and ACO’s globetrotting championship next year.
The Frenchman revealed it last week at the ACO’s annual pre-Le Mans press conference and was very bullish about the prospects for trackside attendance figures and general interest for Season 12.
The 2024 calendar sees the teams travel to eight countries between March and November, and run races to four different formats at a mixture of new and returning venues.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the calendar was the addition of a six-hour race in Imola, replacing the current round in Italy at Monza, which is set to run next month.
Lequien told the media that multiple factors were at play in deciding to switch circuits.
“There are many reasons, the first is the motivation for Imola to welcome us,” he said. “We are very close to the mayor, we discussed and accelerated the discussion knowing that Monza will be under renovation during this period.
“We will see what we will do in two years, but let’s enjoy next season in Imola, which is one of my favourite tracks in the world and one of the most historical places for motorsport.”
It appears on the face of it that Imola is not signed up for the long term, though at this stage Lequien wouldn’t be drawn into a conversation about the venue for a potential visit to Italy during the 2025 season. The length of Imola’s contract remains “confidential”, however, it did say that a return to Monza after the renovations in 2024 are complete was a “possibility”.
The next big chunk of news to come from the announcement was the return of Circuit of The Americas in Texas. From the moment the FIA WEC arrived in Florida for the ‘Super Sebring’ double-header in March, there were rumours aplenty about the future of the WEC in the USA. Clearly, with convergence and the relationship that the ACO and FIA have with IMSA, hosting a round in the USA was never in doubt. The venue though, was.
Racing on the Friday of Sebring race week ahead of the 12 Hours was never ideal for the WEC, neither was the slot in the calendar with the addition of Qatar for the opening round (with a new 1812 km (10-hour) race format as a nod to the Qatar national day). Put simply, returning to Sebring was no longer viable, so the WEC needed to look elsewhere.
The rumours that gained traction ahead of the reveal were a visit in 2024 to either CoTA or Indianapolis. CoTA was always going to be the simpler option, as it is a venue that has hosted WEC rounds before. The circuit management is also popular with WEC management after stepping in on short notice to host a race days before the effects of the pandemic came to the fore in February 2020, when the planned visit to Brazil that year was cancelled.
Indianapolis meanwhile, was another option, as a circuit that has been in discussions with the WEC before. Roger Penske’s takeover of the circuit and his entry to the FIA WEC with Porsche in Hypercar have surely added to its prospects. In the end, CoTA got the nod though, so Indianapolis remains sidelined for 2024 and a potential solution for the future.
“One of the consequences of opening the calendar with Qatar was that we were obliged to modify our plans for the US,” Lequien explained to the media after the conference. “We found a nice agreement for CoTA, the track layout is great for drivers and the city is full of young people. The goal is to have a lot of spectators.
We found a nice agreement for CoTA, the track layout is great for drivers and the city is full of young people
“It’s a difficult place to attract spectators because of other sports and (NCAA college) football games. We will not clash with a football game. The game that weekend (at the University of Texas) will be on Saturday evening so we will take advantage of that and run the race on Sunday. We have plans in terms of promotion.
“If I told you we will sell 200,000 tickets for CoTA I would be a liar, but we will do our best. You cannot have the same strategy for each country.”
São Paulo, another circuit returning to the WEC after multiple years away, appears to have greater prospects in terms of promotion and fan attendance according to Lequien.
In Austin, he admits will be a challenge to fill the stands. But at Interlagos, it seems there is a good level of confidence that we may see a significant number of fans trackside for the duration of the new five-year deal, which was penned straight after the press conference last week.
“We are a world championship, we need to travel,” he explained. “If we talk about Interlagos, it was a dream to make this happen. It started with a discussion with the mayor of São Paulo a long time ago. They showed a very strong motivation. If we go there it’s not just for marketing, it’s going to be a popular race, with lots of spectators. It’s a nice return, we are very proud of that. It’s one of the ‘lands of motorsport’.
“We want to make this event popular, this is the spirit of Le Mans and the WEC. We like it when events are popular and people are close to the cars and drivers. We have already announced the ticket prices for São Paulo,” Lequien added in conversation with DSC. “We want to keep them very cheap because we want a popular event.”
So what about Silverstone? The British circuit, which has a relationship with the WEC that dates back to its inaugural season in 2012, has been rumoured for months as a surprise addition to the calendar. The chances of a return appeared to be boosted further when Lequien told the media back at Round 2 of the current season at Portimao that discussions were ongoing.
At the time he wasn’t in a position to give any clear indications about the future prospects for Portimao or Silverstone. Now we know why, as neither was confirmed or made the final list. Silverstone though, is still in talks for 2025 and beyond.
We are reaching the level that the WEC should have
“We have some very close relationships with track management, we see each other at almost all the WEC races,” Lequien confirmed. “We continue the discussions.
“If we want to add one more race we face new problems. It’s not easy. It takes time to evaluate everything but the will to do something with them is there.”
Adding races is always a very delicate aspect of this process to navigate. The WEC and IMSA say they doing everything they can to avoid clashes. However, with the IMSA calendar already at 10 races and the WEC on the up, it is only becoming more and more complex, especially when other major events on the racing calendar are considered.
In 2024, there is only one schedule conflict with IMSA, and that is the round at Imola, which will run on the same weekend as the Long Beach Grand Prix. (Notably, the WEC round at Spa also clashes with the Nürburgring 24 Hours too, though there are no clashes with the new Bathurst 12 Hour date)
“We do speak all the time with IMSA, and we try to optimise our calendar to avoid clashes,” Lequien stressed. “Sometimes it’s impossible. It’s complicated to set up a schedule. We do our best but we are proud of this calendar.
“IMSA is growing, we are growing. It’s not a surprise for them or us. We discussed this before the calendar was released. We all did our best to avoid that. For logistical reasons, for TV broadcast reasons we will have only one clash.
“We are going to have eight races and now we are reaching the level that the WEC should have.”
