Changes to the FIA WEC 1500 miles of Sebring

Following an extremely productive and positive meeting held on March 18 between the FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA and Sebring International Raceway organisations, some key changes have been jointly agreed for the 2019 race weekend.

Presented by IMSA and the WEC, the 13-16 March event will feature more racing, more cars and a heightened experience for fans with the WEC’s 6th round of its Super Season now becoming the 1000 Miles of Sebring (or 8 hours, whichever comes first) and taking place on Friday March 15 starting in the afternoon and finishing at night.

The IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring will retain its traditional place as the final race on the schedule, the culmination of a truly great weekend of racing for all. The WEC will make use of a separate, newly installed pitlane adjacent to the Ulmann Strait thereby allowing a smoother, faster transition between on track sessions for the different championships. The revised schedule will be more comfortable for spectators, corner workers, media, teams and commercial partners, and will provide even more entertainment for the fans.

The WEC paddock will run concurrently to the IMSA paddock – which remains in its usual location – towards Turn 16 and, as at all WEC races, will be open to fans. As this will be a first visit to the notoriously challenging 3.74-mile (6.01 km) track for many of the WEC’s 36 full-season entrants to the Super Season, there will be an official WEC test day held in the run up to the race weekend. A full schedule with more details will be released in due course. This will be the only time that the LMP1 prototypes, including the two hybrid-powered Toyotas, will race on North American soil in 2019 and the anticipation in the WEC paddock has already started to build.

Image - James Boone