2016 FIA WEC calendar announced

Sports car racing continues to flourish, with the likes of the European Le Mans Series, International GT Open, Blancpain GT Series and United SportsCar Championship all attracting large grids.

Of course the pinnacle for both works and privateer teams remains the FIA World Endurance Championship. As an indication of its success, next year is going to see the addition of a ninth round which will take place at Mexico's Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (Mexico) Circuit
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico is set to host
a round of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship.

Cost implications mean expanding the schedule has to be done very carefully, though. Indeed, the WEC promoter has already commited to pay entrants' freight charges from Europe to Mexico so that the impact on budgets is minimised.

The only other major calendar change concerns the Nürburgring event. Sensibly, this has been moved forward by five weeks to shorten what was an inordinately long interval after Le Mans.

2016 FIA World Endurance Championship - Provisional Calendar
Round Date Event Country
1 17 April 6 Hours of Silverstone Great Britain
2 07 May 6 Hours of Spa Belgium
3 18/19 June 24 Hours of Le Mans France
4 24 July 6 Hours of Nürburgring Germany
5 04 September 6 Hours of Mexico City Mexico (TBC)
6 17 September 6 Hours of COTA - Lone Star Le Mans USA
7 16 October 6 Hours of Fuji Japan
8 06 November 6 Hours of Shanghai China
9 19 November 6 Hours of Bahrain Bahrain

An official pre-season testing session – known as The Prologue – is due to take place at Circuit Paul Ricard in France on the 25th and 26th of March.

Related posts:
Nissan delays its WEC return
2015 FIA WEC calendar confirmed

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