FIA working on solution to FE/WEC calendar clashes
The FIA is trying to find a solution to the three clashes between the Formula E and the World Endurance Championship calendars in 2019/20, says the governing body's President Jean Todt.
The 2019/20 ABB FIA FE calendar was revealed after last week’s World Motor Sport Council meeting and its two 'TBA' slots on December 14 2019 and March 21 2019, as well as the new Seoul race (May 3 2020), clash with WEC races in Bahrain, at Sebring and Spa respectively.
Sam Bird, Jose Maria Lopez, Sebastien Buemi, Andre Lotterer, Antonio Felix da Costa raced full-time in both series in 2018/19, with Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne entering selected races of the WEC superseason alongside their FE commitments, while Aston Martin GTE driver Alex Lynn joined Jaguar for the second half of the current FE season.
Speaking about the situation during the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours, Todt said: “Honestly, I have other things to do in my agenda [than] to look carefully [at] the calendar.
“I realised when the calendar was proposed that effectively there are some clashes between some events.
“I made a calendar commission, where people were due to sit together and to work [together]. If you have a commission [and] people don’t meet, I’m sorry about that.
“There is probably some misunderstanding and some difficulties about the calendars. It’s something I’ve been expressing very often.
“We have 52 weekends in the year and we were mentioning the number of events we have – so unfortunately there are some clashes between some events and some championships.
“Clearly, we know that there is interest with certain drivers to participate to both championships. So now in light of what has happened I’ve already asked my people to see if some solutions could be found.
“I must say it’s not easy – because each championship has its own needs, own problems to solve. But if it’s something which we can improve we will do it. That’s all I can say.”
When asked if the solutions would involve changes to the 2019/20 FE calendar, Todt said that would be the case “If we can”.
“Every year you don’t have the magic stick,” he explained. “We say ‘ok, with 52 weekends and 100s of races we will do something where there is no problem’ – so it will always be a problem.
“I simply feel a bit unsatisfied that this calendar commission did not meet to try to address the problem before. But it’s never [too] late to try.”
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| Series | WEC , Formula E |
| Author | Alex Kalinauckas |
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