FE-WEC concomitance: reasons and scenarios of an unresolved conflict

In the motorsport landscape, the worlds of WEC and Formula E have been connected by a strong bond since the dawn of the electric category. It is no mystery that Formula E teams often turn to drivers also involved in other championships or other activities, but having to deal with the issue of concomitance between different series.

The issue of clashes with the WEC is very complex, because generally some of the drivers involved in the electric championship also race in Endurance. In the past there have been overlaps between the two calendars, such as in 2017 or 2023, which have led to some excellent exclusions, such as José Maria Lopez and Sebastien Buemi, with the latter being replaced by someone familiar with F1, aka Pierre Gasly.

This is not a new problem, so much so that even in 2019 there were continuous discussions to modify the calendar of the 2020 season and avoid concomitances, even if in reality it was overturned by the pandemic. However, despite various attempts, the parties involved have failed to reach a meeting point this year, with the two series set to clash in mid-May.

Because the vote led to nothing

Depending on the contracts, there will therefore be drivers who will have to give priority to the WEC for the 6h of Spa, while others who will continue to race in Formula E for the round in Berlin, consequently skipping the stage of the Endurance championship. Not having reached a meeting point, we at least tried to mitigate the situation, giving the opportunity to those drivers involved in the WEC in Belgium on Saturday to then be able to fly to Germany for the second race of the weekend of the electric series, which theoretically prohibited by regulation.

It was therefore necessary to grant the pilots special permission, for which in turn the unanimous consent of the competitors was needed, as a sort of last resort. A unity of thought which, however, was not reflected, because the vote ended negatively, which means that the drivers who will race in Spa will not be allowed to take to the track in Berlin the following day.

But why was this stalemate situation created which then ended in nothing? Several teams in the world of Formula E are aware of the possibility of such a situation arising, especially bearing in mind that the calendars are continuing to expand in terms of the number of races.

Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Precisely for this reason the teams also tend to do some reasoning, protecting themselves with specific contracts or going to find drivers who do not have any conflict situations that cannot be postponed, as in the case of Andretti. After the farewell of André Lotterer, who just last year had to skip the stage in Jakarta to work with Porsche in view of the 24h of Le Mans, the American team attempted to find an experienced driver who had no commitments in other series , which is why the choice fell on Norman Nato. Although the Frenchman has also signed a contract to race in the WEC, the agreement on Formula E is a priority, which is why Nato will regularly be at the start of both Berlin ePrixes.

The same goes for other teams, which have reasoned precisely from this perspective, such as Jaguar or Porsche, with the latter having decided to cut Antonio Felix da Costa out of the Endurance program precisely to concentrate exclusively on Formula E, given that German manufacturer aims to win the title.

For this reason, it is not surprising that some teams that moved in this direction later said they were against it during the vote. That the calendars could reach a point of conflict has been known for several seasons now given the precedents and, among other things, the possible concomitance between Spa and Berlin had already been discussed last season, so much so that the drivers had already talked about it last October. The two championships spoke together with the FIA ​​and the hope was to reach a solution, which however did not arrive.

As regards the WEC, the basic problem is that, given the organizational complexity of the 24h of Le Mans, in recent years there has always been an attempt to leave a break period of about a month between the endurance race par excellence and the 6h of Spa. On the other hand, the FE also has its difficulties: racing in the city, some events must be planned well in advance. Monaco is the main example of this discussion and the distribution of the races on the calendar also partly depended on this stage.

The Berlin stop

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

The solution would have been to bring forward the Berlin match, but at that point two other problems would have arisen. This option would not only have required the drivers involved in both championships to race for five consecutive weekends, given also the WEC commitment in Imola towards mid-April, but it would also have created a double header for Formula E between Monaco and Berlin, with the consequent need to speed up travel. This is not an insurmountable job, but for the electric series it still represents a problem.

In fact, another unpleasant situation would have been created for Formula E. Between the Berlin stage and the Chinese stage in Shanghai, the next appointment in the calendar, a gap of twenty days would have been created, which among other things would be followed by another one of a month of waiting before traveling to Portland, also for the Le Mans 24h issue. As if that wasn't enough, after the US event there will be another twenty-day engine-off period before the final ePrix in London, effectively leading to just 4 events in the space of three months.

Likewise, postponing the stage in Germany would have been essentially impossible, because this would have meant having only a few days to move all the equipment to China, with an obvious logistical effort that was difficult to justify.

The scenarios: how will the FE react?

Among those who may be affected by this decision are Envision's Sébastien Buemi and Robin Frijns, Mahindra's Nyck De Vries and ABT Cupra's Nico Muller. The problem arises above all for the reigning champion team, which will have to resort to a completely revised line-up for the weekend, with clear repercussions on the possibility of fighting for important points: last year in the tests for the rookies it had Jonny Edgar and Jack Aitken, but they seem more background solutions given the inexperience.

One of the options would be to bring in the reserves of Jaguar, which also supplies the Powertrain to the team, namely Joel Eriksson and Tom Dillmann, reconfirmed again for this season with the Jaguar brand. Additionally, Dillman already has good experience in the electric championship, having raced for Venturi and NIO during Gen 2.

Tom Dillmann has already raced in Formula E

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

As far as Mahindra is concerned, the most concrete option would be to put Jordan King behind the wheel, the team's current reserve who took part in the Berlin tests last year, or Kush Maini, who however only recently joined the team following of Jehan Daruvala's farewell to Maserati. Much further in the background are the chances of Roberto Merhi, who last year replaced Oliver Rowland after his early divorce.

The situation at ABT is much more complicated. On paper the reserve would be Kelvin Van der Linde, who actually replaced Robin Frijns last year when the latter broke his wrist in the Mexican ePrix. However, the South African will take part in the WEC race at Spa in the GT3 category that weekend, which in turn will create a problem for the Akkodis team, which should therefore try to find a replacement.

Both Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne have confirmed that they want to give priority to Formula E over the WEC in case of concomitance by having a priority contract with DS, which focuses heavily on the electric category. Furthermore, Edoardo Mortara will also be free to race for Mahindra in Berlin: Lamborghini, in fact, will leave the Swiss free, replacing him with one of Matteo Cairoli or Andrea Caldarelli taking them from the crew of the SC63 registered at IMSA (not Romain Grosjean, already busy with IndyCar that weekend) to join Mirko Bortolotti and Daniil Kvyat.

None of the teams involved have yet formally announced which will be the reserve drivers who will take part in the double round of the Berlin ePrix, with confirmations that will probably only arrive in April after all the details have been defined. However, this is a situation of conflict which realistically will be repeated in the future with an ever-increasing number of events: it is up to the parties involved, including the International Federation, to learn from this situation and find a solution that can satisfy everyone.