WEC looks to bolster ‘big event’ feel amid returns to COTA, Interlagos for 2024

As FIA World Endurance Championship CEO Frédéric Lequien revealed the series’ 2024 calendar last week at Le Mans, he was brimming with confidence about the prospects for trackside attendance and general interest next year and his presentation got a favorable reception in a press room filled with media, manufacturer and team representatives. WEC will return to an eight-round schedule with a mix of new and returning venues as well four different race formats, offering a fresh feel to a season that will see the teams travel to eight countries between March and November. There were some surprises, too — one of which had been kept very much under wraps.

The latter was the planned six-hour race at Imola, which replaces the current race at Monza. Lequien told the media that there were multiple factors at play in the decision to switch Italian circuits.

“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 favorite 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 Lequien wouldn’t be drawn into a conversation about its WEC future beyond 2024. The length of Imola’s contract, he said, remains “confidential” while a return to Monza after the renovations to Italy’s “Temple of Speed” are complete remains a “possibility.”

The next big chunk of news to come from the announcement concerned the WEC’s visit stateside next year. The “Super Sebring” doubleheader with IMSA is no more, and the WEC will instead return to Circuit of The Americas in Austin.

A number of factors led to to the sunsetting of “Super Sebring” but Lequien says the USA remains a key part of WEC’s plans for the future. JEP/Motorsport Images

Amid the doubleheader in March, there were rumors 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. Yet “Super Sebring” was always far more popular among fans trackside than it was with TV viewers and a WEC paddock obliged to work to its crushingly taxing timetable filled with late nights, early starts and constant track action.

Racing on the Friday of Sebring race week ahead of the 12 Hours was never ideal for the WEC. Neither was the mid-March 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).

“One of the consequences of opening the calendar with Qatar was that we were obliged to modify our plans for the U.S.,” Lequien conceded.

Quite simply, returning to Sebring was no longer viable, so the WEC had to look elsewhere. The rumor mill quickly pointed in two directions: COTA or Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

COTA was always going to be the simpler option, as 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 canceled.

Indianapolis, though, had been in discussions with the WEC before, while Roger Penske’s takeover of IMS and his team’s Hypercar entry with Porsche surely added to its prospects. In the end, COTA got the nod but IMS remains a potential solution for the future. For now, though, the series aims to make the most of its U.S. visit to college town Austin.

“We found a nice agreement for COTA — the track layout is great for drivers and the city is full of young people,” Lequien noted. “The goal is to have a lot of spectators.

“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.”

Brazil’s Interlagos — another circuit returning to the WEC after multiple years away — has even greater prospects in terms of promotion and fan attendance, according to Lequien. That confidence was demonstrated by the series’ new five-year contract with the São Paulo circuit.

Motorsport Images

“If we talk about Interlagos, it was a dream to make this happen,” he declared. “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,” Lequien told RACER. “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 — we want to keep them very cheap because we want a popular event.”

So what about Silverstone? A return to the British Grand Prix circuit, which has a relationship with the WEC that dates back to its inaugural season in 2012, appeared to be a real prospect. Lequien told the media at Portimao earlier in the season that discussions were ongoing, although at the time he wasn’t in a position to give any clear indications about the future prospects for either the Portuguese or the British circuits. Now we know why, as neither made the final list, although Lequien says the door remains open.

“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 for any championship. WEC and IMSA have been doing everything they can to avoid clashes. However, with the WeatherTech Championship calendar already at 10 races and the WEC on the up, it is a colossal task, especially when other major events on the racing calendar are considered.

In 2024, there is only one schedule conflict with IMSA — at Imola, which will run on the same weekend as Long Beach.

“We do speak all the time with IMSA, and we try to optimize 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.”

The bottom line, though, is that Lequien is determined to continue expanding the WEC’s international reach.

“We are a world championship, we need to travel,” he emphasized. “We are going to have eight races and now we are reaching the level that the WEC should have.”

Story originally appeared on Racer