An enlargement of the World Endurance Championship calendar past its current eight races has been dominated out for 2026.
Sequence boss Frederic Lequien confused the significance of stability and continuity when revealing that plans to extend the variety of rounds past the normal eight stay on the again burner.
“I’ve mentioned many occasions that we want a steady calendar,” Lequien informed Autosport. “At the least for subsequent yr we could have eight races once more.”
Lequien outlined ambitions for the WEC to return to its nine-race excessive of 2015-17 again in 2022 and even broaden to 10 occasions.
His feedback got here because the WEC was making ready to extend its schedule after slimming down to 6 races after the COVID-19 pandemic on grounds of prices.
The soundness and continuity of which Lequien spoke means the WEC appears near-certain to journey to the identical tracks similtaneously this yr.
That may imply no place on the schedule for Silverstone, which made clear its ambitions to return to the WEC calendar final yr on the announcement in October that it’ll host a spherical of the European Le Mans Sequence this yr.
LMGTE Am Podium #98 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage: Paul Dalla Lana, Darren Turner, Ross Gunn, #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO, Francois Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard, Nicklas Nielsen, #70 MR Racing Ferrari 488 GTE: Motoaki Ishikawa, Olivier Beretta, Kei Cozzolino
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Silverstone managing director Stuart Pringle revealed on the time that he was already in dialogue with the Vehicle Membership de l’Quest, which runs the ELMS and co-organises the WEC with the FIA, about as soon as once more internet hosting a world championship race.
The British venue held the opening spherical of the COVID-affected 2019/20 schedule in September 2019 and dropped off calendar when the WEC went to 6 races.
A spherical of the WEC befell at Silverstone yearly from the rebirth of the sequence in 2012 till ’19.
Lequien revealed that he’s looking forward to a giant crowd for the British ELMS spherical, which is able to happen on 14 September.
He mentioned he believed there may be “a robust urge for food for endurance in Britain and at Silverstone”.
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The WEC was made up of eight races from its relaunch till the addition of the Nurburgring fixture in 2015 on the behest of Porsche and Audi.
It subsequently downsized from 9 to eight races for the ‘superseason’ of 2018/19, because it transitioned to a winter-series format starting within the autumn and climaxing with the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.
That plan was curtailed by COVID-19, which resulted within the 2019/20 season operating from September ’19 till November ’20. After two years with six races in 2021 and ’22, the WEC went to seven rounds in ’23 and eight in ’24 and ’25.
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