The FIA World Endurance Championship has announced, that the season finale of the 2019/20 season in Bahrain has been moved forward a week.
The race was originally scheduled for 21 November, but Formula 1 was lacking some events, and decided to go to Bahrain two weekends in a row, at the end of November and early December.
That would result in just 2, maximum three days of turn around time from when the FIA WEC teams would leave the track, until the Formula 1, plus Formula 2 and Formula 3 teams would have to be in the paddock.
Photo: Marius Hecker / AdrenalMedia.com
So the FIA WEC date has been moved to 14 November, with the race starting at 14.00 local time, and finishing at 22.00.
The 8 hours race replaces the Sebring round, which should had run in March 2020, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation. If the Bahrain race goes ahead as planned, it will actually mean that the 2019/20 has exactly the same duration, as on the original calendar, even though there has been several changes to it, since the first version.
Unfortunately it will be create a clash between the 12 hours of Sebring and the 8 Hours of Bahrain. There are no news yet from IMSA, if they are considering pushing their race one week back, or if they will stick to 14 November. In case of a clash, it would mean that drivers like Gabriel Aubry would have to make a decision, since he has contracts for both races.
The FIA WEC teams are currently preparing for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the middle of September, which will be followed by an almost two-month gap to the Bahrain event.
