[WEC] FIA World Endurance Championship

[Acid09]

I have no idea if that's a hoax or not but several Twitter sources are reporting that there will be a FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012 and Le Mans will be part of it!

Doe anybody have any further info on this? Is this going to replace the ILMC? Sounds rather exciting...

[R4z3rw33n]

Originally Posted by Acid09

I have no idea if that's a hoax or not but several Twitter sources are reporting that there will be a FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012 and Le Mans will be part of it!

Doe anybody have any further info on this? Is this going to replace the ILMC? Sounds rather exciting...

It's on the official press release:

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre...sc-030611.aspx

Looks like confirmation to me.

[Speedblood]

Just hope Bernie doesn't go anywhere near it...

[R4z3rw33n]

This is perhaps this most interesting part:

From 2012 a new ‘GT World class’ will be created, balancing the performance of 2011 GT1 cars, 2009 GT2 cars and 2011 GT3 cars to enable them to compete in a single FIA GT World Championship. A review of the performance of these three categories of cars will be conducted in order to open up the Championship to a greater number of makes.

Not sure how great an idea that is. Considering the political **** storm (re: performance balancing) that's already an issue in each individual category.

[Acid09]

Partnership with the ACO, at least six events including Le Mans... sounds like it will replace the ILMC indeed.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Partnership with the ACO, at least six events including Le Mans... sounds like it will replace the ILMC indeed.

Since the ACO is involved, I wouldn't call it "replacing" the ILMC, I'd rather say that the ILMC is going to be "evolved" into this championship next year.

[NelisB]

Any ideas at what the rounds will be? Spa, Le Mans, Sebring, Silverstone, Petit Le Mans and.... ? I hope it's not going to be some chinese track no ones heard off.
And where will the GTE (GT2) class go in these races will they be moved to the GT1 championship with GT3?

[AstonGeoff]

Isn't this the much talked about replacement for the current GT1 World Championship? Note that the statement only talks about GT cars, and not prototypes.

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by NelisB

Any ideas at what the rounds will be? Spa, Le Mans, Sebring, Silverstone, Petit Le Mans and.... ? I hope it's not going to be some chinese track no ones heard off.

Germany! Seriously, it's unacceptable that the ILMC is not racing in Germany despite three manufacturers are German and there's a rich history (Nürburgring 1000km) here..

I know that not all of these issues are in the hands of the ACO but they need to make it happen...

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by AstonGeoff

Isn't this the much talked about replacement for the current GT1 World Championship? Note that the statement only talks about GT cars, and not prototypes.

That's probably since the prototype classes are not supposed to go under any kind of reshuffling as the GT classes are.

[courageous]

Because the last time Le Mans was part of an FIA championship everything worked out just fine didn't it?

[Speed-King]

I think this series more or less confirms that there will be prototypes and GTs in this series:

FIA World Endurance Championship titles will be awarded to Constructors and Drivers, and an FIA GT Endurance World Cup will be created for Constructors.

World Championship for the overall winners, world cup for the GTs.

[MitchZ06]

So GT1 might end up back at Le Mans?

Could we end up with then 5 classes in the ILMC/ FIA GTWEC, LMP1, LMP2, GT1, GTE and GT3?

[alexkiller8]

is there will be a recycle of fia GT1 cars maybe there will finally be a maserati mc12 running at le mans

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by MitchZ06

So GT1 might end up back at Le Mans?

Could we end up with then 5 classes in the ILMC/ FIA GTWEC, LMP1, LMP2, GT1, GTE and GT3?

No, GT1/2/3 will be merged into one class/two if the ACO insists on keeping the Pro-Am-class.

[MitchZ06]

So you could potentially create a 'GT1' car with the carbon brakes, improved aero, big engine etc and be able to go racing in this new series?

[AGD]

Technically, GT1s were allowed to enter this year in the GTE-Am class.

It looks like there will be drivers championships next year in addition to the constructor championships. No team championships though?

[Speed-King]

It isn't really a new series... merely ILMC with GT opened up for GT1 and GT3 cars. And I am not sure if they'd homologate any new GT1-cars or rather try to force everybody down to GT2/3 while still allowing teams to race their GT1s for a few years.

[AGD]

Perhaps the "GT World Class" with the 2011 GT1s/GT3s and 2009 GT2s are for the FIA GT series and the "FIA GT Endurance World Cup" is simple GTE as it is now but renamed. The two may have nothing to do with one another. Right?

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by AGD

Perhaps the "GT World Class" with the 2011 GT1s/GT3s and 2009 GT2s are for the FIA GT series and the "FIA GT Endurance World Cup" is simple GTE as it is now but renamed. The two may have nothing to do with one another. Right?

GT1 World Championship becomes GT World Championship, which has nothing to do with the World Endurance Championship as far as I can tell in terms of organization.

[R4z3rw33n]

Originally Posted by AGD

Perhaps the "GT World Class" with the 2011 GT1s/GT3s and 2009 GT2s are for the FIA GT series and the "FIA GT Endurance World Cup" is simple GTE as it is now but renamed. The two may have nothing to do with one another. Right?

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

GT1 World Championship becomes GT World Championship, which has nothing to do with the World Endurance Championship as far as I can tell in terms of organization.

That seems to be what Dagys is saying:

Originally Posted by John Dagys

GT1 World Championship will become FIA GT World Championship, while there will be a FIA GT Endurance Cup inside thew WEC..

Source: https://twitter.com/#!/johndagys

[Victor_RO]

With the new merged GT class, what does this mean for the Blancpain endurance series? Merged into the new championship? They haven't announced the race format for that championship yet...

[KA]

Yep, looking at the press release, the sections on 'World Endurance Championship' and 'GT' seem to be two separate items on the document.

So, if we've got the ILMC getting formal FIA World Championship status, and then the GT1/2/3 classes being rolled into a single class for the FIA GT World Championship (ie Ratel's series), will the ILMC/WEC adopt this new GT class structure to replace GTE Pro/Am, and will they keep the Pro/Am split?

Another thought- where does this leave the existing FIA GT3 series? Continuing as a support race for the GT World Championship races , or will GT3 just fall back to national series, with the more ambitious teams graduating to WEC or GT World Championship?

...and now we've got the FIA involved, how long before they manage to foul it all up?

[Jonerz]

So perhaps this means GT3 cars are going to be welcome in the ALMS, despite management's perceived ineptitude? Or have we decided that the GT World Cup will be for Le Mans GTE(2) cars only and the mushing together of three classes is for the separate GT World Championship?

Chris

[AGD]

The FIA GT Endurance World Cup is only a constructor's title. Maybe there will be separate WEC titles for prototypes and GT in addition to the FIA GT Endurance World Cup. Also, will the FIA GT Endurance World Cup include races that are not part of the WEC? Perhaps "stand alone" LMS races or even ALMS races?

EDIT: Dagys is in the process of clearing this up for us. I know I am confused!