The fourth race of the WEC superseason 2018/2019 was shifted for a week for Fernando Alonso to have no overlap with the F1 race for the US GP in Austin.
Alonso will also drive for Toyota in the 2018/2019 WEC superseason Championship in the LMP1 category in order to compete at 24h Le Mans and try to get closer to the Triple Crown of motorsport.
Although Alonso was confirmed for four of the five WEC championships in 2018, the 6h Fuji race organizers demanded a date change for double world champion to avoid overlapping with the US GP in Austin on October 21st.
The race on Fiji was supposed to be held on 14 October, but the WEC changed the term to 21 October to avoid overlapping with the Petit Le Mans race in the IMSA Championship in the United States.
But after confirming that Alonso will compete in all WEC championships in 2018, besides Fuji, the organizers of the race asked to return to the old date – 14 October.
The Petit Le Mans race of the IMSA Championships is a 10-hour endurance race and many WEC drivers were planning to compete.
The decision to move the WEC race in Fuji because of F1 superstar Fernando Alonso will frustrate those drivers, including Toyota’s Mike Conway, who drives the #7 Toyota (Alonso drives #8). Some of the drivers who planned to attendt this race were Bruno Senna from Rebellion, Renger van der Zande from DragonSpeed, Harry Tincknell and Olivier Pla from Ford and several drivers of BMW’s GTE factory team.
Alonso will contest 26 races in 2018 – 21 races in Formula 1 with McLaren and five WEC championship races with Toyota, including 24h Le Mans scheduled on 16 June, weekend between Canadian and French GP.
2018/2019 WEC SUPERSEASON CALENDAR
1 | 5 May 2018 | Spa-Francorchamps |
2 | 16 June 2018 | Le Mans 24h |
3 | 19 August 2018 | Silverstone |
4 | 14 October 2018 | Fuji |
5 | 18 November 2018 | Shanghai |
6 | 16 March 2019 | Sebring |
7 | 4 May 2019 | Spa-Francorchamps |
8 | 15 June 2019 | Le Mans 24h |
Note: All WEC races last 6 hours except 24h Le Mans
ALONSO CALENDAR FOR 2018
01 | F1 | Australia | 25 March |
02 | F1 | Bahrain | 08 April |
03 | F1 | China | 15 April |
04 | F1 | Azerbaijan | 29 April |
05 | WEC | Spa | 05 May |
06 | F1 | Spain | 13 May |
07 | F1 | Monaco | 27 May |
08 | F1 | Canada | 10 June |
09 | WEC | Le Mans 24h | 16 June |
10 | F1 | France | 24 June |
11 | F1 | Austrija | 01 July |
12 | F1 | Great Britain | 08 July |
13 | F1 | Germany | 22 July |
14 | F1 | Hungary | 29 July |
15 | WEC | Silverstone | 19 August |
16 | F1 | Belgium | 26 July |
17 | F1 | Italy | 02 September |
18 | F1 | Singapore | 16 September |
19 | F1 | Russia | 30 September |
20 | F1 | Japan | 07 October |
21 | WEC | Fuji | 14 October |
22 | F1 | USA | 21 October |
23 | F1 | Mexico | 28 October |
24 | F1 | Brazil | 11 November |
25 | WEC | Shanghai | 18 November |
26 | F1 | Abu Dhabi | 25 November |