2019-20 WEC

[Grand_Fromage]

[Kev_mk3]

ooooh Spa might be a good shout

[Landy_Jon]

Intrigued by the 4/6/8/12 hour formats.

[Barry]

Hate the idea of 4 hours, should be 6 hours minimum IMHO to qualify as a world endurance event.

[mgmark]

What Barry said.

Anyone know any good reason why it has been reduced to 4 hours?

I find it difficult to believe that it's been changed solely because of "fan feedback", which seems to be what is being touted on the WEC website, viz: "The 2019-2020 FIA World Endurance Championship calendar announced today heralds the return of two popular venues, São Paulo and Bahrain, and also introduces a revision to the duration of its different races in line with fan feedback gathered in the 2017 WEC Fan Survey"

[geoffd]

The four hour races are going to play havoc with stint lengths for the three driver teams unless minimum driving times rules don't apply.

And all that way to China for a four hour race?  And eight hours in Bahrain that barely draws a crowd of three blokes and a camel!

I think they always wanted to move away from a fixed six hours for the non LM races, and the survey question was rigged to give the result the wanted from the fans if I remember rightly.

Still, with a four hour race at Silverstone, and no F3 next year it does give the chance to have a longer more relevant race added to the card.  Endurance legends anyone?

[mgmark]

Link to the survey below. Show 24, 6 and 12 hours in that order as the top ranked durations. 4 hours was preferred by only about 5%.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.fiawec.com/assets/ressources/Pdf/2017/WEC_Global_Fan_Survey_Media_Report.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjeltz1pfvcAhVpAsAKHQ4SCHkQFjAAegQIABAB&usg=AOvVaw3bqI-LBG53Kt8urNcnPRP3

[Lorry]

So will Bahrain carry twice as many points as Silverstone?

4 hours is hardly endurance, but judging from the F1 coverage, its how long they expect you to sit in front of the tv.

[nopanic - neil]

Hate the idea of 4 hours, should be 6 hours minimum IMHO to qualify as a world endurance event.

4 hours - that's what it takes me to drive to London - so I call it other words than endurance  (and I'm the only driver!)

[Landy_Jon]

Not sure what Silverstone must think of this especially as they'd pulled the nuclear option on cancelling F1 so (potentially) cutting off another major revenue stream for them.  Is this revenge of the FIA?

I'll still probably attend coz I love the racing but I can't see this attracting the hoards of overseas fans (ie their cars I saw in the carpark and the ones I met at the circuit) would make the effort for just 4 hours of racing.  It's almost cheaper to fly to Bahrain!