The FIA World Endurance Championship has postponed their planned opening to the 2026 in Qatar.
The delay is due to the unrest in the Middle East, which let to a statement that was sent out last week.
The season opener will instead happen at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola on 17-19 April.
Photo; FIAWEC/DPPI
The plan is to run the Qatar race later this year, once things hopefully have calmed down in the region. But that is no easy task, since a lot of dates have to fit in.
There are no free weekends prior to Le Mans in June, and the immediate aftermath is the preparation for the cars to be shipped out of Europe – the first stop being Brazil, followed by a short transport to Texas and the Circuit Of The Americas. Everything will be loaded onto a plane, and then flown to Japan – and then we are getting into the area of a potential replacement date.
There is the 10-hour race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta in the IMSA series, followed by the European Le Mans Series finale in Portimao. Are you going to squeeze in Qatar prior to the current season finale in Bahrain, or will it be later in November? The transport from Bahrain to Qatar is very short, but you need to service the cars thoroughly between a 10-hour race, or a 8-hour race, which ever happens first, and that can be quite time consuming.
We are hoping for a safe return to Europe, of all the equipment that is already in Qatar, and for the staff members, who need to prepare the transport.
