The FIA World Endurance Championship 2021 schedule has been updated one more time.
This time around, it’s down to changes with the opening round in Portimao.
ACO and LMEM have chosen to move the race to 13 June, which yesterday’s Le Mans announcement left empty. Their hope is for the travel restrictions between especially Great Britain and Portugal to have been ended, and the chance of letting in spectators for the race.
That will turn the race at Spa Francorchamps on 1 May into being the opening round of the 2021 season. The week starts with two days of Prologue, before the actual race weekend starts on Thursday.
This is of course down to the COVID-19 situation, that time and time again shifts the calendar. The original opening race should have been at Sebring in March, but the travel restrictions for European travellers going into the US made that pretty much impossible, which made the organizers move the race to Portugal instead.
Monza stays on its July date for now, just as the dates for Fuji and Bahrain remain in place in September and November respectively.