LE MANS: Q&A With WEC CEO Gerard Neveu

Le Mans / ALMS

LE MANS: Q&A With WEC CEO Gerard Neveu

FIA World Endurance Championship CEO discusses recently confirmed Shanghai round and status of the Six Hours of Bahrain...

John Dagys | Posted February 14, 2012 Chicago, IL

FIA World Endurance Championship CEO Gerard Neveu was on-hand at Sebring last week, in preparations for next month's season-opener. (Photo: John Dagys)

With the launch of the World Endurance Championship less than six weeks away, the final touches are being put on the ACO and FIA’s new global championship, which takes the green at the 60th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 17.

READ: WEC Moving Forward Without Peugeot

 One of the hottest topics surrounding the WEC has been its calendar. SPEED.com caught up with series CEO Gerard Neveu to get his thoughts on the recently confirmed round in Shanghai and the status of the Six Hours of Bahrain, currently scheduled for late September.

DAGYS: Shanghai was recently confirmed as being the final round of the WEC. What was the decision making process in Shanghai vs. Zhuhai, which hosted the ILMC for the previous two years?

NEVEU: When you go to China, it's difficult because it's expensive, it's far and you have to prove many things. But on the other hand, it's a very important market for the constructors and manufacturers. You can't imagine doing a modern World Championship and forget China. We found a good partner in Shanghai and what I hope is a good business model. It was a good opportunity.

Zhuhai made a big effort last year to welcome the ILMC. But from the circuit [perspective], it was a little bit difficult because it was an old track and was not exactly corresponding to the level of the championship we'd like to have. We know Zhuhai and we will now try Shanghai. Their circuit is absolutely beautiful and it's a very important city for China. I think as we found a good opportunity, we'll try to do it. But you never know what can happen in the future.

DAGYS: The China round, originally scheduled for mid-November, was moved to Oct. 27, two weeks after Fuji but only one week after the Petit Le Mans. Was there a reason for the date change?

NEVEU: When you do a calendar like this, you cannot take into consideration all of the other championships; it's impossible. Some people ask for no clashes with Formula One for the TV coverage. Other say, 'Absolutely no clashes with the European or American Le Mans Series.' After that, some ask, 'Make a big effort to avoid clashes with DTM because we're engaged in that.'

In the end, you only have 52 weekends. You can't sell 20 of them because it's impossible to do racing in the winter. It means you more or less only have 30 weekends and you have to use eight of them.

We try to do the maximum we can do. It's never perfect, especially when this is the first year [of the championship]. It’s very difficult to make everybody happy. The only thing we can say is that it looks like the majority of the people in the [WEC] paddock are happy with this calendar, and it's a World Championship.

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