Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari had another mechanical issue hamper their world championship hopes and Lewis Hamilton ceased the opportunity and won the Japanese Grand Prix. The Jolyon Palmer-era came to an end. James French and Pato O'Ward were not able to complete the perfect season in Prototype Challenge but those two had already locked up the class championship. Team Penske finished third in two endurance races happening on opposite ends of the world. A pair of champions were crowned in Jerez. NASCAR beat the rain in its own backyard. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
WEC's Future is Winter
It has been over a month since the FIA World Endurance Championship announced the 2018-19 "super season" with the series transitioning from the traditional spring to autumn schedule to an autumn to summer schedule with a season spanning two years and ending at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Next season will start in May 2018 with the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps before the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Silverstone has moved to August and Fuji and Shanghai will close out the 2018 portion of the calendar. The 2019 portion of the calendar begins with a new race in the United States in March. The lone race in the Americas will be a 1,500-mile race at Sebring International Raceway and it will take place a few hours after IMSA completes the 12 Hours of Sebring. The final two races of the 2018-19 season will be Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans before the 2019-20 season will pick up later that year.
This format has been floating out there for a few years but it seemed unlikely to be implemented when the FIA WEC hosting Audi, Toyota, Porsche and Nissan all in the LMP1 class. The series was going strong and it seemed to be growing to a higher level. However, Nissan lasted one race. Audi left after 2016. Porsche will say goodbye at the end of 2017. Toyota isn't committed for the long-term future. WEC is trying to stay alive and has to try something to keep the series going.
I don't mind the split calendar but there are plenty of questions when it comes to looking beyond the 2018-19 season. Next WEC season will only be six different races with Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans being on the schedule twice at the bookends of the season. The series can't rely on six rounds in 2019 onward. There will have to be at least one more race added if not two races added and those will have to be scheduled sometime in winter or early spring. The schedule might have to even start a few weeks later with Silverstone moving to early September.
There is a four-month gap from Shanghai and Sebring. Something will have to fill that gap and that race will most likely have to be a southern hemisphere race or the Middle East, which is easier said than done. Interlagos didn't work for WEC. Outside of Kyalami, there isn't another option in Africa. The Middle East has a few options but Bahrain is off the schedule and I am not sure Dubai or Yas Marina would be better options.
There are Asia-Pacific options that could work. The Asian Le Mans Series has had well attended races at Buriram in January. I am not sure an ALMS-WEC doubleheader could work at Buriram but if WEC is looking for a crowd, it is a suitable option. Sepang no longer hosts Formula One and it hosts the ALMS finale in February. Then there is Australia but I can't think of a circuit that would be practical for the series. No, Mount Panorama is not practical. Maybe Phillip Island.
I do have a concern with the Sebring round and I would not be surprised if the 2020 trip to Sebring looks different for WEC than the 2019 race. First off, it makes no sense starting a race at 2:00 a.m. local time, anywhere in the world. Has WEC never watched How I Met Your Mother? Nothing good happens after 2:00 a.m. I think the weekend will be saturated. A 1,500-mile race is going to take close to 12 hours to complete. It will likely take about 28 hours from the start of the 12 Hours of Sebring to the finish of the WEC race and I think people will want to go home by 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning.
The Sebring WEC race doesn't have to be 12 hours or 1,500 miles or some distance that makes it stands out from the rest of the season. I think Sebring could be a six-hour race starting the Friday before the 12 Hours of Sebring at 3:00 p.m. ET and it would be a better time for everybody. It would start Friday night in Europe, it would end Friday night in Sebring and it could allow drivers to do both races comfortably instead of the risky proposition of running a 1,500-mile race a few hours after completing a 12-hour race.
The winter schedule is probably going to cause havoc with a number of other sports car races over the winter. WEC moved next season's Fuji race to avoid a clash with Petit Le Mans but WEC will also have to squeeze into a portion of the calendar that already features the Dubai 24 Hour, Bathurst 12 Hour and the 24 Hours of Daytona. Granted, two of these races are GT3-based races so those races won't lose teams from competing but some drivers will likely not be able to compete in some of these races they otherwise would be in because of scheduling. WEC will avoid scheduling head-to-head with the 24 Hours of Daytona but it might not be able to avoid the Roar Before the 24 test session.
One final concern I have with the future scheduling of WEC is ending the season with the 24 Hours of Le Mans. While some would argue it makes sense to end with the biggest race on the calendar, no motorsports series does that and there is a good reason for it. You don't want the race overshadowing the end of the championship. IndyCar tried ending the season with the Indianapolis 500 at the start of the Indy Racing League but it wasn't going to work.
You don't want the championship overshadowed by the race winners and that is going to be the case. The people rush the front straightaway and stand before the podium to celebrate the race winners. The champions aren't going to get that type of moment and they all deserve it. I am not sure this could be an easy fix though. Unless WEC is willing to add a season finale for early July then the series is going to be stuck ending at Le Mans and champions will be stuck not receiving the acknowledgement they deserve.
The switch to a winter schedule for WEC will cause its headaches. I am sure there will be a few situations that make us wish the series could go back to the schedule being the way it was for the first six seasons but I think we got to give it a chance as WEC tries to reignite the spark it had not too long ago.
Champions From the Weekend
The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor clinched the IMSA Prototype championship by starting Petit Le Mans.
The #3 Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio García clinched the GTLM championship with a second place finish in Petit Le Mans.
The #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan clinched the GTD championship by starting Petit Le Mans.
Charle Leclerc clinched the Formula Two championship with victory in race one from Jerez. Leclerc finished seventh in race two, which was won by Artem Markelov.
George Russell clinched the GP3 Series championship with finishes of second and fifth at Jerez.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Artem Markelov but did you know...
The #9 Erebus Motorsport Holden of David Reynolds and Luke Youlden won the 60th Bathurst 1000.
The #2 Extreme Speed Motorsports Nissan of Scott Sharp, Ryan Dalziel and Brendon Hartley won the 20th Petit Le Mans. The #25 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Motorsports BMW of Bill Auberlen, Alexander Sims and Nick Castsburg won in GTLM. The #26 BAR1 Motorsports Oreca of John Falb, Tomy Drissi and Garret Grist won the final Prototype Challenge race. The #29 Montaplast by Land-Motorsport Audi of Connor De Phillippi, Christopher Mies and Sheldon van der Linde won in GTD.
Martin Truex, Jr. won the NASCAR Cup race from Charlotte. Alex Bowman won the Grand National Series race, his first career victory.
The #37 Lexus Team KeePer's TOM's Lexus of Ryō Hirakawa and Nick Cassidy won the Super GT race from Buriram. The #51 LM corsa Lexus RC F GT3 of Yuichi Nakayama and Sho Tsuboi won in GT300.
Nirei Fukuzuma and Alessio Lorandi split the GP3 Series races from Jerez.
Kris Meeke won Rally Catalunya.
Gabriele Tarquini and Robert Huff split the TCR International Series races from Zhejiang.
Coming Up This Weekend
WEC runs the 6 Hours of Fuji.
MotoGP will be at Motegi for the first of three consecutive Asia-Pacific races.
Laguna Seca hosts the California 8 Hours, the penultimate round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters championship closes with a doubleheader at Hockenheimring.
NASCAR takes a trip to Talladega.
World Touring Car Championship makes it consecutive weeks with unnoticeable touring car races in China, as WTCC will be at Shanghai.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
