Breaking news
Formula E
FIA working on solution to FE/WEC calendar clashes
The FIA is trying to find a solution to the three clashes between the Formula E and the World Endurance Championship calendars in 2019/20, says the governing body's President Jean Todt.
Alex Kalinauckas
Edited: Jun 18, 2019, 8:58 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The 2019/20 ABB FIA FE calendar was revealed after last week’s World Motor Sport Council meeting and its two 'TBA' slots on December 14 2019 and March 21 2019, as well as the new Seoul race (May 3 2020), clash with WEC races in Bahrain, at Sebring and Spa respectively.
Sam Bird, Jose Maria Lopez, Sebastien Buemi, Andre Lotterer, Antonio Felix da Costa raced full-time in both series in 2018/19, with Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne entering selected races of the WEC superseason alongside their FE commitments, while Aston Martin GTE driver Alex Lynn joined Jaguar for the second half of the current FE season.
Speaking about the situation during the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours, Todt said: “Honestly, I have other things to do in my agenda [than] to look carefully [at] the calendar.
“I realised when the calendar was proposed that effectively there are some clashes between some events.
“I made a calendar commission, where people were due to sit together and to work [together]. If you have a commission [and] people don’t meet, I’m sorry about that.
“There is probably some misunderstanding and some difficulties about the calendars. It’s something I’ve been expressing very often.
“We have 52 weekends in the year and we were mentioning the number of events we have – so unfortunately there are some clashes between some events and some championships.
“Clearly, we know that there is interest with certain drivers to participate to both championships. So now in light of what has happened I’ve already asked my people to see if some solutions could be found.
“I must say it’s not easy – because each championship has its own needs, own problems to solve. But if it’s something which we can improve we will do it. That’s all I can say.”
When asked if the solutions would involve changes to the 2019/20 FE calendar, Todt said that would be the case “If we can”.
“Every year you don’t have the magic stick,” he explained. “We say ‘ok, with 52 weekends and 100s of races we will do something where there is no problem’ – so it will always be a problem.
“I simply feel a bit unsatisfied that this calendar commission did not meet to try to address the problem before. But it’s never [too] late to try.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Twin motors banned in Formula E next season
Next article Buemi "sad" about two-year win drought in FE
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Alex Kalinauckas
Who is Kimi Antonelli, F1 sprint polesitter at just 18?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Who is Kimi Antonelli, F1 sprint polesitter at just 18?
Why Bottas has the edge over Perez in 2026 F1 return race
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
Why Bottas has the edge over Perez in 2026 F1 return race
What if Red Bull solved its second-car problem with a paint job?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
What if Red Bull solved its second-car problem with a paint job?
Latest news
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Phoenix
2 h
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
7 h
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 8 h
Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
12 h
Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe