Zug, Switzerland – The seventh season of the FIA World Endurance Championship is about to get underway, kicking off on Saturday 5 May in Belgium with the TOTAL 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The upcoming season promises to be the most exciting yet for fans of motorsports thanks to the latest evolutions it brings with it, including a new format.
The FIA World Endurance Championship moves from an annual race calendar to a season format. The first season will also be a Super Season as opposed to a regular one, meaning it will last 14 months and feature eight different races.The biggest news, however, is that the 24h of Le Mans – the jewel in the crown of international endurance racing – will be staged twice during the course of the championship, the second time as the final race of the season in June 2019. Please find the complete calendar of the Super Season here.
The season will feature 36 full-season cars representing 12 different nations, the highest number entered for a season since the inception of the World Endurance Championships, with BMW the latest manufacturer to join alongside Toyota, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Ford and Porsche.Thrilling action and breathtaking duels are ensured given the top-quality grid on which the Championship can count. Fernando Alonso, the two-time F1 World Champion, has signed with the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team and will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship for the first time.
The Spanish driver will be joined by another former F1 Champion, British Jenson Button, who will be racing in each of the Super Season races, starting from the second race in Le Mans on 16-17 June. This shows that the discipline of endurance racing, and more specifically the WEC, is attracting more top-quality drivers. This in turn is attracting more fans, enabling it to constantly grow.
Infront, which has been marketing media rights for the FIA World Endurance Championship since 2015, ensures wider coverage than ever before. It has secured broadcaster partners on all continents, with ongoing broadcast partnerships and worldwide coverage through Eurosport. New deals include Velocity in the US, AutoPlusTV in Russia and a further 14 Eastern European and Central Asian territories. Finally, TV5 Monde will be broadcasting all races in all worldwide French-speaking territories.
About Infront
Infront is a leading sports marketing company managing a comprehensive portfolio of top properties. Infront covers all aspects of successful sporting events, including the distribution of media rights, sponsorship, media production, event operation and digital solutions. Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, Infront has a team of more than 1,000 staff working from over 40 offices across more than 13 countries, delivering 4,100 event days of top class sport around the world every year. In 2015, Infront was integrated into Wanda Sports Group, part of Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group.