An FIA WEC GT3 Ford race car
Understanding The FIA WEC
The FIA WEC is a race car series known for the famed 24 Hours Of Le Mans, an all-day, all-night nonstop hour race known for excitement. The FIA is the overall company that runs the WEC. FIA stands for Federation Internationale de L’Automobile, and WEC stands for World Endurance Chapionship. The reason they call it this is decently obvious — the shortest race this season is 6 hours long, and the longest is 24 hours. This series is a very hard series to get into and overall physically demanding once you’re in. Most of these cars don’t even look like cars, they look like spaceships that flew down from Mars. Not all of these races are in the same country. Almost all races on the schedule are in different countries, ranging from the U.S. to Bahrain. The drivers aren’t all from the same country as well! These race cars don’t race in an oval like NASCAR. They race on tracks that have left turns, right turns, hairpins, chicanes (small hairpins that are meant to slow down the car), and some tracks are 8 miles long! One thing that makes this series different from others is that the Gt3 cars race at the same time as the Hypercars so the races can be chaotic. This is because the Gt3 cars are slower than the Hypercars so the Hypercars have to get through slower traffic without getting passed. This series isn’t the fastest, but it is not the slowest. Even though the cars are slower than other series’ cars, they are still very light and elegant looking. Also, the Gt3 cars may not look as fast, but in my opinion, they still look cool, and in reality, they are still fast. (The picture inside the article is a Gt3 car and the cover picture is a Hypercar.)
The Drivers
The FIA WEC is not all about the cars though, it is also focused on the drivers. Drivers are from all over the world come together, on the same or different teams. Teams are normally 3 drivers per car, and the teams are decided by the holding company of a car. (Sometimes car manufacturers own the car, sometimes companies like Hertz team up with a car brand to own a car, and sometimes companies like Hertz will just own a car on their own.) The drivers have to be able to race for long amounts of time with little to no sleep. The drivers also have to be able to handle extreme heat because, on the inside of the car, it can be extremely hot! These drivers have to be on their toes at all times to avoid accidents like most other race series, but some of the accidents aren’t caused because of a lack of skill, some are caused because of a lack of sleep, so careless mistakes are made.
New Rules
The FIA will soon be releasing a new rule for the WEC that all companies that race in Hypercar will need to have two cars. This will affect some teams that only have one car and are racing this season, and it will also affect companies that plan on entering Hypercar next season. Not all companies will be affected by this new rule though, some companies already have two cars, so they have nothing to worry about. The next season for the FIA WEC begins in February.
Works Cited:
Federation Internationale de L’Automobile. https//:www.fia.com.
FIA World Endurance Championship. www.fiawec.com/en/.
