Silverstone’s hopes of returning to the World Endurance Championship have been boosted by affirmation that any calendar enlargement for 2027 would include a further race in Europe.
Collection boss Frederic Lequien replied “undoubtedly” when requested by Motorsport.com if a ninth race for the season after subsequent could be in Europe.
However he refused to be drawn on whether or not Silvestone, which was a part of the WEC schedule from the rebirth of the collection in 2012 till 2019, is in pole place to host the additional race.
“It’s true we’re discussing with Silverstone, however we can’t say they’re the favourites,” stated Lequien.
He went on to emphasize the complexities of introducing one other European spherical right into a schedule that presently begins its fly-away leg within the instant wake of the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.
Lequien outlined a want for the WEC to return to the UK with a race at its conventional residence within the nation.
WEC Silverstone
Picture by: JEP / Motorsport Photos
“We’d like to return to Silverstone, as a result of we all know the fan base for endurance is big within the UK,” he continued.
Silverstone is renewing its partnership with WEC co-organiser the Vehicle Membership de l’Ouest and its Le Mans Endurance Administration subsidiary this 12 months.
The British monitor will host a spherical of the LMEM-run European Le Mans Collection on 14 September, the primary worldwide long-distance race within the UK since COVID compelled the cancellation of each the WEC/ELMS doubleheader and the spherical of the GT World Problem Europe Endurance Cup scheduled for Silverstone in 2020.
Stuart Pringle, Silverstone Managing Director, reiterated the monitor’s aspirations to as soon as once more host the WEC.
“We’d like to have the WEC again and the British Racing Drivers’ Membership has an extended custom with Le Mans and the ACO going again almost 100 years,” he stated, referencing the institution of the organisation that owns the monitor in 1928 by Dudley Benjafield, one of many ‘Bentley Boys’ who raced at Le Mans.
“We hope that the Silverstone ELMS weekend will remind everybody of the large urge for food for endurance racing within the UK.”
Silverstone
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photos
Pringle added that sturdy superior ticket gross sales pointed to a 40,000 three-day crowd that may allow followers “to really feel a bit little bit of the ambiance of Le Mans”.
The WEC has repeatedly talked about upping the variety of races on the schedule to the 9 occasions of the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
It returned to its conventional eight rounds for the 2018/19 ‘super-season’ incorporating two editions of the Le Mans 24 Hours, and remained at that quantity for the 2019/20 marketing campaign regardless of COVID.
A revised calendar for 2021 with simply six races to cut back the monetary burden on the groups was introduced in September 2020. There have been seven races in 2023 after which eight once more in 2024. Subsequent 12 months’s schedule, introduced at Le Mans in June, is unchanged from that of 2024 and 2025.
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