2017 FIA World Endurance Championship provisional calendar

Today, the FIA Endurance Commission has presented the provisional FIA World Endurance Championship calendar for 2017 which will be submitted to the FIA World Motorsport Council in the following days for validation.

One major change is the Prologue which now will be held at Monza instead of Le Castellet as in the past years during the last weekend of March. The addition of the high-speed circuit to the calendar will be a welcome addition for teams as part of their preparations for the cornerstone event of the world championship, the Le Mans 24 Hours.

All other venues on which the series run in 2016 will return, with no major date changes. The 6 Hours of the Nürburgring is planned one week earlier than this year, causing a clash with the Formula E series in which several LMP1 factory drivers are active at the moment. 

The main race of the season, the 24 Hours of Le Mans will take place on June 17 & 18, with the testweekend 2 weeks in advance on the 3th and 4th of June.  

All events will be of a duration of six hours, other than Le Mans.  The season starts, as is now tradition, with European rounds at Silverstone, Spa, Le Mans and Nürburgring, before the trans-continental journey begins to Mexico, USA, Japan, China and Bahrain.

“We are very pleased to have maintained this level of stability in the five years of the WEC to date, and our 2017 calendar allows us to continue to build on the tradition of endurance racing around the world,” said Pierre Fillon, President of the ACO.  “Our increasing number of fans year on year is proof that returning to a venue at a similar time of year encourages people to make their plans to attend well in advance…and to bring friends with them to enjoy all the entertainment and access that the WEC offers.  The Le Mans 24 Hours needs no introduction, but we know that audiences in countries such as Mexico can only increase as their knowledge and interest in the WEC grows.  We look forward to an exciting 2017 starting with our first visit to Italy.”

“The opportunity to start our season at Monza is one we are sure will please competitors, fans and media alike,” said Gérard Neveu, CEO of the WEC. “We hope that our calendar not only meets the expectations and requirements of all our partners and competitors, and makes economic and logistical sense, but also that it fits in with the increasing number of events that each venue hosts.  The WEC continues to offer fans access to the most technologically relevant, competitive, and open championship possible, as well as offering our manufacturers Aston Martin, Audi, Ferrari, Ford, Porsche and Toyota the perfect showcase for their products on and off track.”

2017 FIA World Endurance Championship Provisional Calendar**

24/25 March                 The WEC Prologue, Monza                        (Italy)

16 April                        6 Hours of Silverstone                                 (UK)

06 May                         WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps         (Belgium)

17/18 June                   Le Mans 24 Hours                                        (France)

16 July                         6 Hours of Nürburgring                               (Germany)

03 September              6 Hours of Mexico                                        (Mexico)

16 September              6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas               (USA)  

15 October                   6 Hours of Fuji                                              (Japan)

05 November               6 Hours of Shanghai                                     (China)

18 November               6 Hours of Bahrain                                       (Bahrain)

** Subject to approval by the FIA World Motor Sport Council

Kristof Vermeulen.

European Le Mans Series - 4 Hours of Spa-Franchorchamps: 41 cars on the grid

41 cars will be on the grid on Sunday for the first race of the renewed European Le Mans Series at Spa-Francorchamps. The Belgian track hosted the opening round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup back in 2011, since then the championship hasn't returned to the Ardennes.

With the addition of Spa-Francorchamps to the championship, the series return to a mythical and probably one of the most beautiful tracks in the world. The combination of long straights, fast and technical corners and natural altitude differences always guarantee an amazing background for an endurance race.

13 LMP2 cars will be racing at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, one more than last month at Le Castellet with an new Belgian effort in the class.

Championship leaders Thiriet by TDS Racing arrive in Francorchamps after winning the last three rounds of the championship in Italy, Austria and France. Ryo Hirakawa takes up his driving duties again in the #46 Oreca05/Nissan. With 78 points, the team is just 8 points ahead of the Mighty 38 G-Drive Racing Gibson 015S. Simon Dolan, Giedo van der Garde and Harry Tincknell will be keen to reduce that gap and try to get on top of the championship table again.

Vitaly Petrov replaces Julian Leal in the #32 SMP Racing BR01/Nissan, sharing the car with Stefano Coletti and Andreas Wirth. SMP Racing is defending its third place in the championship, with the addition of Petrov to their line-up, they'll be focussed on getting another podium finish Sunday evening.

LeSports by Eurasia Motorsports shares fourth place in the championship after just missing out the podium at Paul Ricard last month. Pu Jun Jin who missed out the race in France after a hefty crash at Signes, will return to the wheel of the Oreca05 this weekend, joining Pieter De Bruijn and Tristan Gommendy again.

Sean Doyle is in the #38 Murphy Prototypes Oreca again, now joined by Gary Findlay and Brazilian Bruno Bonifacio. Findlay returns to the team after racing in Imola in May. 21 year old Bonifacio is making his debut in sportscar racing, but has lots of experience under his belt in Formula 3, Formula Renault 2.0 and 3.5.

A new addition to the grid is Belgian team WRT who will race the Judd powered Ligier JSP2 which was run by So24! earlier in the season. Ex Manor driver Will Stevens will share the car with Belgian brothers Laurens and Dries Vanthoor.  Laurens Vanthoor already knows the car well, having driven it twice at Le Mans, but with a Nissan engine.  For now this is a one time outing of the succesfull team in the ELMS championship. The team is exploring new horizons for the future, so who knows of they might return to sportscar racing in the future.

Swiss team Race Performance again won't race their #34 Oreca03 as in the past 2 races and are in Spa with the Ligier LMP3. They will race the car again in the Asian Le Mans Series, starting at the end of next month. 

In LMP3 we"ll have 19 cars competing this weekend. Tockwith Motorsports returns for their second race in the championship after a very competitive debut at last months race at Le Castellet.

The #2 United Autosports Ligier of Alex Brundle, Christian England and Mike Guash comes to Spa as leaders in the championship with 3 wins under their belt. With 90 points, the have a 30 point lead over the #19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier and the #9 Graff JSP3. If they can keep a lead of 26 point after Sundays race, they will be crowned champions on Sunday evening.

One noticeable driver change in the LMP3 field. In the #4 OAK Racing Ligier, Carlos Tavares will race instead of Jean-Marc Merlin. Tavares is the CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroën with already a lot of racing experience in the past.

© Erik Junius - image-ine.be

Although announced for this race earlier in the season, the Ave-Riley LMP3 which will be run by Murphy's men won't race at Spa or Estoril next month. The car was on display at the Lone Star Le Mans event at COTA last week, but they opted to further develop and test the car before putting it through the whole homologation process in december.  It certainly looks the part, and first reports from testing seem to confirm that it has already shown some good speed at the track.

The GTE grid is roughly the same as at Paul Ricard, with the same eight cars. Just two driver changes are to be noted: Christina Nielsen returns to the #60 Formula Racing Ferrari F458 Italia and Matteo Cairoli takes his seat back in the #88 Proton Porsche.

The championship battle in GTE is very close, with just 8 points separating the top 3 teams. The yellow #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari leads the table with 68 point, only 5 points ahead of the #99 Beachdean Aston Martin. Third in the championship is the #56 AT Racing Ferrari, with the #77 Proton Porsche further down.

The race weekend at Spa will be action filled with the GT3 Michelin Le Mans Cup, Renault Sport Trophy, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and a few Renault F1 demo's over the weekend. 

Track action for the ELMS resumes tomorrow morning with the Bronze driver collective test at 10h10. The first free practice session will be run at 15.20h in the afternoon. 

Useful links : 

- Entry List

- Timetable

- Spotter Guide

- 

Kristof Vermeulen

FIA WEC - 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas: Audi locks out front row

After being fastest in all practice sessions, Audi now locked out the front row for the 6 Hours of the circuit of the Americas tonight.

© Marius Hecker - AdrenalMedia.com

The #8 R18 driven by Lucas Di Grassi, Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis was fastest in all three practice sessions but had to settle for second in tonights qualifying session. Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer took pole position in a session where the fastest times were set in the dying minutes.

© Marius Hecker - AdrenalMedia.com

With a 1.45.750, the Audi #7 crew was 0.233 seconds faster than the #8 R18. Third place on the grid is for last years winners at COTA, the #1 Porsche of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard, who will start behind both Audi's, with an average of 1.46.560.

© Marius Hecker - AdrenalMedia.com

Despite Kobayashi being second fastest, his #6 Toyota is "only" fourth on the final starting grid, but inbetween both Porsches. The second Porsche 918 qualified in fifth place, ahead of the Toyota #5.

Rebellion Racing outpaced ByKolles in the privateer class and takes pole with a 1.53.646.

© Marius Hecker - AdrenalMedia.com

In LMP2 championship leaders Nicolas Lapierre and Gustavo Menezes scored their forst pole position of the season. With average time of 1.55.892 in their #36 Signatech Alpine A460, they were almost a second faster the Roberto Merhi and Matt Rao in the #44 Manor Racing Oreca05. Third on the grid is the #43 RGR Sport Ligier JSP2, just under half a second behind the Manor.  Another strong performance of the #42 Strakka Gibson 015S put the team fourth on the grid, with the #35 Baxi DC Racing Alpine rounding out the top 5.

© Marius Hecker - AdrenalMedia.com

Drama for G-Drive Racing when Alex Brundle saw three of his laps deleted due to track limits in turn 9, not being able to set a time in the #26 Oreca and dropping down to last place on the grid.

© Ade Holbrook - AdrenalMedia.com

Despite being hit by a BoP adjustment just before the raceweekend, Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorenson in their #95 "Dane Train" Aston Martin were fastest in GTE-Pro in an average time of 2.04.610. Davide Rigon and Sam Bird take second spot on the grid, only 0.042 seconds behind in their #71 AF Corse Ferrari 488. The Ford GT #66 with Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla at the wheel was third fastest in its home race, just ahead of the #51 AF Corse and #97 Aston Martin.

© Marius Hecker - AdrenalMedia.com

In the GTE-Am category, it's another Aston Martin on top of the timetables. Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy were fastest in their #98 Vantage V8 with a 2.07.683. Khaled Al Qubaisi who won the last race in Mexico was second fastest together with Kevin Estre in their #88 Abu Dhabi Proton Porsche, but already 0.612 seconds behind the leaders. The two other Porsches in class were third (#78 KCMG) and fourth (#86 Gulf Racing) in class.

The green flag for the race will be waived at 17.00h this afternoon local time.


Qualifying results

Results FP1 
Results FP2
Results FP3


Kristof Vermeulen.