When the final round of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship season is run this Saturday, it will also be the final race for at least two drivers in the field.
Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima have chosen to end their professional careers, once the 8 Hours of Bahrain has been run.
Both drivers have been more or less a fixed part of the FIA WEC since its start in 2012, and in the case of Davidson, even long before that too.
Both Davidson and Nakajima have raced for Toyota Gazoo Racing, racing in the same car, but the Brit ended his run with the Japanese manufacturer after Le Mans 2018, where his reserve driver duties were fulfilled. That made him available for racing at DragonSpeed, where he teamed up with Roberto Gonzalez and Pastor Maldonado, before they moved to JOTA, with Davidson/Gonzalez teaming up with Antonio Felix da Costa instead.
Photo: JJ Media
One of the reasons for the two drivers not being part of every single FIA WEC race, has been down to injuries amongst other things. Ant had a serious airborne accident at Le Mans 2012, where he broke his back, while Nakajima had an accident at Spa Francorchamps in 2015, where he had to sit out as well. On top of that, there was a parallel Japanese programme for Nakajima, making him miss a few rounds due to date clashes, in the early years of the FIA WEC.
Both drivers are World Champions, with Ant winning that title in 2014 together with Sebastien Buemi only, due to Nakajima not running at all rounds, while Nakajima has won the title in 2018/19 alongside Buemi and Fernando Alonso.
It’s still not known, who are going to replace the two drivers in the FIA WEC programmes.
The FIA WEC 2021 season finale will run this Saturday, starting at 12.00 CET.
