Goodbye Intercontinental Le Mans Cup; long live the FIA World Endurance Championship!

Written by Justin Clarke Monday, 14 November 2011 00:00

Finally this weekend at the Zhuhai 6 hours meeting the race calendar of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship was announced.

The championship kicks off at Sebring on 7th March and will finish in China on 11th November, out go Imola and Petit Le Mans from the schedule and in come Brazil, Bahrain and Japan. The season opens with the Sebring 12 Hours on 17th March and moves to Europe with the 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps on 5th May. Le Mans test day has been moved to 3rd June, now only two weeks before the Le Mans 24 Hours on the 16th/17th June.

After a summer break the series is at Silverstone on 25th August; a good few weeks earlier than this year and also on the bank holiday weekend, should make for a fantastic end to the summer! The racing moves to Brazil for the first time since 2007 at the Interlagos circuit on 16th September and then heads to the Fuji Speedway on 30th September.

Bahrain is scheduled for 20th October and is already proving to be controversial; partly because there are still concerns following the cancelled F1 race this year and also because it clashes with Petit Le Mans, which is still going ahead as part of the American Le Mans Series. The series concludes in China on 11th November 2012, at either Zhuhai or Shanghai.

The FIA have put together a trailer for the 2012 season, which you can watch here, and look out for the all new FIA WEC logo at the end of the trailer.