2021 FIA World Endurance Championship

The 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship will be the ninth season of the FIA World Endurance Championship, an auto racing series organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The series is open to prototype and grand tourer-style racing cars divided into four categories. World Championship titles will be awarded to the leading manufacturers and drivers in both the prototype and grand tourer divisions.

2021 FIA World Endurance Championship
Previous: 2019–20 Next: 2022

The 2021 championship is due to see a significant overhaul of the technical regulations in the top class of competition. The LMP1 Prototypes used in the top class for the first eight years of the championship will be phased out and replaced by a new class known as Le Mans Hypercars. However, current specification LMP1 cars will be permitted to be "grandfathered" for use in the season.

The 2021 championship will also mark the return to an annual calendar for the World Endurance Championship, switching back to a summer calendar after the late running of the previous season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]

Schedule

A schedule was revealed in December 2019 at the 8 Hours of Bahrain.[2] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the previous season was extended into November 2020. However, the 2021 season will return to an annual calendar entirely instead of a winter calendar.[3] A calendar for the 2021 season was announced during the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans event. The calendar featured six rounds as opposed to eight and saw the removal of the 6 Hours of Silverstone, 6 Hours of Shanghai and Lone Star Le Mans when compared with the 2020-21 calendar as well as the addition of the 6 Hours of Monza.[4] The decision to run a six-round series was made to save on costs due to the financial impact of the pandemic.[5] The 1000 Miles of Sebring was initially scheduled for 19 March 2021 as the first round of the season, but was cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and replaced by a race of the same length at Portimão on 4 April 2021.[6]

Rnd Race Circuit Location Date
1 8 Hours of Portimão Algarve International Circuit Portimão, Algarve, Portugal 4 April
2 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Spa, Belgium 1 May
3 24 Hours of Le Mans Circuit de la Sarthe Le Mans, France 12–13 June
4 6 Hours of Monza Autodromo Nazionale di Monza Monza, Italy 18 July
5 6 Hours of Fuji Fuji Speedway Oyama, Shizuoka, Japan 26 September
6 8 Hours of Bahrain Bahrain International Circuit Sakhir, Bahrain 20 November
Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Race Circuit Location Original Date
1000 Miles of Sebring Sebring International Raceway Sebring, Florida, United States 19 March

Regulation changes

The championship will introduce the Le Mans Hypercar category as a replacement for the Le Mans Prototype 1 class.[7][8] Manufacturers will be free to build and enter bespoke designs without homologation requirement or cars based on existing road-going models subject to a homologation requirement of building at least twenty road-legal models over a two-year period.[9] The cars will have a minimum weight of 1,030 kg (2,270 lb), and power output will be capped at 680 hp (510 kW) in order achieve a benchmark lap time of three minutes and thirty seconds at the Circuit de la Sarthe.[9] Hybrid energy-recovery systems are allowed on the front axle only, and cars can derive up to 272 hp (203 kW) of their total power output from those systems. A Balance of Performance system modelled on the system used by the GTE class will be applied to ensure parity between hybrid and non-hybrid models.[9] Manufacturers will be given greater freedoms in designing the bodywork of Hypercars compared to Le Mans Prototypes provided that bodywork styling does not affect safety standards.[9] LMP2 cars will receive a power decrease of 40 horsepower, to 560 horsepower, in order to maintain the performance gap between the new top class and LMP2. A specification tyre will be introduced in LMP2, produced by Goodyear, ending the tyre war between Goodyear and Michelin.[10]

Entries

Toyota announced plans to enter the championship under the Hypercar regulations with a bespoke car based on the GR Super Sport Concept.[11] Toyota launched their GR010 Hybrid on 15 January 2021.[12] In June 2020, boutique car manufacturer Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus committed to a two-car effort with the Glickenhaus 007 LMH, in partnership with 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans winners Sauber Motorsport, 15-time Le Mans winners Joest Racing, and engine specialists Pipo Moteurs.[13][14][15] [16] At the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, LMP1 competitors ByKolles Racing Team committed to a hypercar programme with its own car, the PMC Project LMH, but the team were not present on the entry list announced ahead of the 2021 season.[17][18][19] Aston Martin initially planned to enter a car based on the Valkyrie road-going model.[11] However, the British manufacturer later decided to put its Le Mans Hypercar program on hold.[20][21] Long-time LMP1 privateer team Rebellion Racing will end its racing operations at the end of the 2019-20 season,[22] despite having previously announced the joint development of a Hypercar with Peugeot.[23] Peugeot itself has announce plans to compete from 2022 onwards, and announced Ligier Automotive as a partner in its project.[24][25][26][27] Alpine announced that it will enter the championship using a single rebadged Rebellion R13 LMP1, run by Signatech Alpine.[28][29][30] In LMGTE Pro, Aston Martin Racing ended its factory GTE Pro program run by Prodrive.[31]

Hypercar
Entrant Car Engine Tyre No. Drivers Rounds
Toyota Gazoo Racing[32] Toyota GR010 Hybrid Toyota 3.5 L Turbo V6 M 7 Mike Conway[33] TBA
Kamui Kobayashi[33] TBA
José María López[33] TBA
8 Sébastien Buemi[33] TBA
Brendon Hartley[33] TBA
Kazuki Nakajima[33] TBA
Alpine Elf Matmut[34] Alpine A480 Gibson GL458 4.5 L V8 M 36 Nicolas Lapierre[35] TBA
André Negrão[34] TBA
Matthieu Vaxivière[35] TBA
Glickenhaus Racing[34] Glickenhaus 007 LMH Pipo Moteurs 3.5 L Turbo V8 M 708 Gustavo Menezes[34] TBA
Olivier Pla[36][N 1] TBA
Richard Westbrook[36][N 1] TBA
709 Ryan Briscoe[34] TBA
Pipo Derani[36][N 1] TBA
Romain Dumas[36][N 1] TBA
Franck Mailleux[36][N 1] TBA
  1. Although Glickenhaus has named which drivers will be with the team in 2021, the specific car they will be driving have yet to be announced.[36]

LMP2

In accordance with the 2017 LMP2 regulations, all cars in the LMP2 class use the Gibson GK428 V8 engine. Entries in the LMP2 Pro-Am Cup, set aside for teams with a Bronze-rated driver in their line-up, are denoted with a dark background.

Entrant Car No. Tyre Drivers Rounds
Richard Mille Racing Team[37] Oreca 07 1 G Tatiana Calderón[37] TBA
Sophia Flörsch[37] TBA
Beitske Visser[37] TBA
High Class Racing[38] Oreca 07 20 G Dennis Andersen[38] TBA
Anders Fjordbach[38] TBA
Jan Magnussen[38] TBA
DragonSpeed USA[39] Oreca 07 21 G Ben Hanley[34] TBA
Henrik Hedman[34] TBA
Juan Pablo Montoya[39] TBA
United Autosports USA[34] Oreca 07 22 G Filipe Albuquerque[34] TBA
Philip Hanson[34] TBA
Fabio Scherer[34] TBA
Jota[40][41] Oreca 07 28 G Tom Blomqvist[41] TBA
Sean Gelael[41] TBA
Stoffel Vandoorne[41] TBA
38 G Anthony Davidson[40] TBA
António Félix da Costa[40] TBA
Roberto González[40] TBA
Racing Team Nederland[42] Oreca 07 29 G Frits van Eerd[42] TBA
Giedo van der Garde[42] TBA
Job van Uitert[42] TBA
Team WRT[43] Oreca 07 31 G Robin Frijns[43] TBA
TBA TBA
TBA TBA
Inter Europol Competition[44] Oreca 07 34 G Alex Brundle[44] TBA
Kuba Śmiechowski[44] TBA
Renger van der Zande[44] TBA
ARC Bratislava[34] Ligier JS P217 44 G Miro Konôpka[34] TBA
TBA TBA
TBA TBA
Realteam Racing[45] Oreca 07 70 G Loïc Duval[45] TBA
Esteban Garcia[45] TBA
Norman Nato[45] TBA

LMGTE Pro
Entrant Car Engine Tyre No. Drivers Rounds
AF Corse[34] Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 M 51 James Calado[34] TBA
Alessandro Pier Guidi[34] TBA
TBA TBA
52 Miguel Molina[34] TBA
Daniel Serra[34] TBA
TBA TBA
Porsche GT Team[34] Porsche 911 RSR-19 Porsche 4.2 L Flat-6 M 91 Gianmaria Bruni[34] TBA
Richard Lietz[34] TBA
TBA TBA
92 Kévin Estre[34] TBA
Neel Jani[34] TBA
TBA TBA

LMGTE Am
Entrant Car Engine Tyre No. Drivers Rounds
TF Sport[46] Aston Martin Vantage AMR Aston Martin 4.0 L Turbo V8 M 33 Felipe Fraga[46] TBA
Ben Keating[46] TBA
Dylan Pereira[46] TBA
D'station Racing[47] M 777 Tomonobu Fujii[47] TBA
Satoshi Hoshino[47] TBA
TBA[47] TBA
Team Project 1[34] Porsche 911 RSR-19 Porsche 4.2 L Flat-6 M 46 Jörg Bergmeister[34] TBA
TBA TBA
TBA TBA
56 Matteo Cairoli[34] TBA
Egidio Perfetti[34] TBA
TBA TBA
Cetilar Racing[48] Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 M 47 Roberto Lacorte[48] TBA
TBA[48] TBA
TBA[48] TBA
AF Corse[48] Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 M 54 Francesco Castellacci[48] TBA
Giancarlo Fisichella[48] TBA
Thomas Flohr[48] TBA
83 Nicklas Nielsen[48] TBA
François Perrodo[48] TBA
Alessio Rovera[48] TBA
Iron Lynx[48] Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8 M 60 Matteo Cressoni[48] TBA
Claudio Schiavoni[48] TBA
Andrea Piccini[48] TBA
85 Rahel Frey[48] TBA
Michelle Gatting[48] TBA
Manuela Gostner[48] TBA
Dempsey-Proton Racing[34] Porsche 911 RSR-19 Porsche 4.2 L Flat-6 M 77 Christian Ried[34] TBA
TBA TBA
TBA TBA
88 Julien Andlauer[34] TBA
TBA TBA
TBA TBA
GR Racing[34] Porsche 911 RSR-19 Porsche 4.2 L Flat-6 M 86 Ben Barker[34] TBA
Michael Wainwright[34] TBA
TBA TBA
Aston Martin Racing[34] Aston Martin Vantage AMR Aston Martin 4.0 L Turbo V8 M 98 Paul Dalla Lana[34] TBA
TBA TBA
TBA TBA

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