2014 WEC calendar confirmed

Next year the FIA World Endurance Championship is going to be all about Porsche. True, we can probably expect Audi and Toyota to take favouritism as the two most likely to the battle for the title. But when you consider Porsche has had the relative luxury of developing its 2014 LMP1 racecar without the demands of ongoing competition you’d not be surprised to see the 16-time Le Mans winners make a strong early showing.

No doubt the WEC will receive a huge upsurge in coverage here in Australia on the back of Mark Webber‘s return to top line sporstcar racing and we’ll be doing our best to play a part in that role.

Following the FIA’s approval overnight here’s the full calendar of events for the 2014 WEC season, which begins on 20 April with the 6 Hours of Silverstone. The jewel in the WEC crown is, of course, the 24 Hours of Le Mans which will take place on 14–15 June.

World Motor Sport Council

The final 2013 meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) took place today (4 December) in Paris, France.

Wed 04.12.13, 3:03PM

The following decisions were taken:

FIA WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

Following the adoption of the 2014 LMP1 technical regulations, a system of “Equivalence of Technology (EoT)” between the LMP1 technologies will be implemented. Two periods of adjustment of the technical parameters have been set in place. A first transitional period of adjustment will run until the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours. During this period, the manufacturers will be asked to send data to the FIA (in December 2013 and February 2014) projecting what they will be capable of implementing during the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours. During a second period, after the first three events following the 2014 Le Mans, the data will be measured again and adjusted for one year, until the 2015 Le Mans event. The EoT rules and system of penalties in case of infringement will be managed by the Endurance Committee.

The sporting regulations will be amended in order to incorporate any modifications resulting from the introduction of the new LMP1 technical regulations, such as a new scale of penalties in order to introduce penalties which are consistent and graded to the severity of the technical infringement.

A new FIA Endurance Trophy has been created and will be awarded to the best private LMP1 team driver(s), assuming at least three cars are entered for the season.

ACO and GT representatives will form a collaboration from 2014 to harmonise the categorisation of GT drivers in both the WEC and GT Series.

The 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship calendar was confirmed as follows: