FIA World Endurance Championship

The **FIA World Endurance Championship**, otherwise known as the **World Endurance Championship** or **WEC** is an endurance based sportscar championship sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile and organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest. First held in 2012, the goal of the **WEC** was to create a World Championship level series for sportscar racing amid a global rise of interest in motorsport as a whole.

The **WEC** was also used to fully integrate the 24 Hours of Le Mans into an official FIA series, and each season is heavily dominated by the outcome of the legendary race, with extra points awarded based on the finishing results of that race. The series further served as an effective revival of the World Sportscar Championship, which ran from 1953 until 1992, and would be a direct replacement for the ACO's Intercontinental Le Mans Cup as the FIA and ACO sought to form a closer partnership.

As of the 2023 edition of the **WEC**, the series runs races of varying lengths and time limits, with entries across three separate classes: Hypercar, LMP2 and LM GTE AM.

## History

The WEC was first announced on 3 June 2011 by the FIA and ACO in a joint statement, using the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup as a foundation for both the technical and sporting rulebooks, albeit with FIA's standardised rulings regarding driver categories and World Championship scoring systems. Four initial classes were announced: LMP 1 for professional drivers and expected to be filled with manufacturer based, hybrid powered, prototype cars; LMP2 for a mix of professional and amature drivers using standardised prototype cars; LM GTE Pro for factory backed GT cars and drivers; and LM GTE Am for amature drivers using older GTE cars and customer racing teams. The expected requirements, particularly for entries in the LMP1 class, were tweaked to allow non-manufacture teams to enter, with only two global manufacturers in Audi Sport and Toyota comitting to the LMP1 Hybrid ruleset for the first season.

### Top Class Twists: LMP1/Hypercar

Audi would be the inaugural WEC Champions in LMP1, with no other World Championship titles handed out for other classes, although the winners of LM GTE Pro, Ferrari, were awarded the World Cup for GT Manufacturers instead. In 2014 the WEC's premier class, LMP1, was split into LMP1-Hybrid for factory teams with hybrid cars (amid the arrival of Porsche to the Championship), with a secondary LMP1-Lightweight class for privateers with conventionally engined cars. In 2015 the LMP1 classes were re-merged to form a single top class in the WEC, with the LMP1 field further enhanced by the arrival of Nissan into the series.

The WEC would wobble soon after the 2015 season, however, as Nissan left at the end of the season, and then both Audi and later Porsche would announce their departures from the series, both in order to focus on programmes in the Formula E Championship. In 2017 the FIA and ACO revealed a new programme to be introduced in 2020, and later delayed until 2021, known as Hypercar, which was designed to allow manufacturers to enter hybrid powered cars based on existing cars that they produced in order to increase the number of entries. Interest remained fairly limited until the FIA and ACO signed a deal with IMSA in the United States to expand the Hypercar entry to include a new jointly formed ruleset known as LMDh, which was a simplified version of Hypercar's ruleset allowing manufacturers to use standardised chassis and a spec hybrid system.

The combination of Hypercar and LMDh ensured that there would be an influx of new manufacturers in the top WEC class for 2023, with Toyota and Peugeot remaining, Porsche rejoining, Ferrari jumping from LM GTE to the top class, and Cadillac joining the WEC for the first time having been a dominant force in the IMSA series under the DPi ruleset. Further programmes were revealed by Alpine, BMW and Lamborghini, all to debut in 2024, while Audi briefly held an intention to rejoin the WEC with a new Hypercar/LMDh project, before opting to instead focus on a move into Formula One in 2026.

### Privateers -v- Pros: LMP2

The LMP2 class remained largely unchanged in the first seasons of WEC from the days of the ILMC, with teams free to build and/or purchase a chassis, and use a mix of professional an amature drivers. 2012 saw only the entrant in LMP2 win a title for their efforts, Starworks Motorsport becoming the inaugural Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Teams champions, before the 2013 season saw the drivers in LMP2 also earn trophies for their efforts. LMP2 would quickly prove to be the most popular class in the WEC, as teams were able to field their cars in both the WEC and the European Le Mans Series, as well as use their equipment in the US based IMSA series.

In-spite of the early success of LMP2 there would be a move to try and preserve its popularity, with the FIA and ACO introducing a tender programme for four chassis constructors which locked teams to a choice of four chassis and a single engine supplier. The new LMP2 ruleset came into effect in 2017, with Dallara, Onroak Automotive, Riley Tech and Oreca the chosen chassis constructors, while Gibson Technology won the engine tender. The LMP2 field would quickly be dominated by Oreca chassis but remained one of the WEC's most popular and closest classes, with a particular highlight coming at the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans when Jackie Chan DC Racing secured a double overall podium having also briefly led the great race.

### GT Professionals and Amatures: LM GTE-Pro/Am

GTE-Pro would prove initially more popular than the top LMP1 class as a source of entry for manufacturers, with Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin all fielding factory supported teams in the GTE-Pro class from 2012 onward. Those three would be joined by Ford in 2016, while BMW entered the field in 2018, before both departed the WEC ahead of the 2019-20 campaign, leaving Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin as the lone Pro entrants once again. Aston Martin would also depart during 2020 to leave Ferrari and Porsche to duel for the GT World Championship title, with the FIA and ACO taking action in 2021 to keep their GT class alive amid a number of manufacturers citing that the GTE rulebook was simply too expensive and too exclusive to build cars for.

2022 would be the last season for the GTE-Pro class, with the FIA and ACO opting to curtail a full professional GT class in the WEC from 2023 onward, while GTE-Am would survive into 2023 with teams still allowed to run year-old GTE-Pro cars. In 2024 the WEC would allow entrants to field Group GT3 cars in a combined GT class, using a ACO version of the GT3 ruleset known unofficially as GT3 Premium, aimed at customer teams and initially supporting a full ban on manufacturer entries.

## Format

Seven titles are to be decided and awarded in the current season (As of 2023) based on total point tally, with three being deemed world championships: Hypercar World Endurance Drivers' Championship, Hypercar World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship and the Hypercar World Cup for Teams. The points system is similar to that used in the FIA's other world championships, awarding points to the top ten finishers on a sliding point margin scale from first to tenth. Cars finishing the race but classified eleventh or further are awarded a half point. For 8 and 10-hour races, points are worth roughly 1.5x as much (i.e. 25 points for a win is worth 38 points at these races). For the 24 Hours of Le Mans, points are worth roughly 2x as much.

## See Also

* International Le Mans Cup

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## References

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1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `WEC`
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3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 [Archived] Marcel Ten Caat, 'FIA announces World Endurance Championship', *planetlemans.com*, (Planet Le Mans, 03/06/2011), https://web.archive.org/web/20111018211324/http://www.planetlemans.com/2011/06/03/fia-announces-world-endurance-championship/, (Accessed 18/03/2023) - Original
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20. ↑ Trophies & cups - FIA World Endurance Championship.
21. ↑ Points - FIA World Endurance Championship.
22. ↑ Points - FIA World Endurance Championship