The 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship will come to an exciting conclusion as the chequered flag flies for the 6 Hours of São Paulo. The World Manufacturers, GT Manufacturers and LMP2 titles will be awarded and fond farewells made to several key figures from endurance racing including Audi Sport’s Tom Kristensen.
The historic Autódromo José Carlos Pace will see 26 cars taking the start of the eighth and final round on Sunday 30th November, and a TV distribution package has been arranged which will allow viewers worldwide the opportunity to follow through to the end one of the most exciting FIA WEC seasons so far. Toyota Racing is poised to win the World Endurance Championship Manufacturers’ title, and the battle for honours in GTE is still as close between Ferrari and Porsche. With uncertain weather conditions and a new track surface at Interlagos, the racing is sure to be as exciting as it is unpredictable. The green flag for the start will be waved at 13h00 local (-2 hours GMT).
Host broadcaster Sport TV/TV Globo in Brazil will be broadcasting the 6-hour race live to the country’s 37.5 million viewers and there are some big Brazilian names in the race including Lucas di Grassi and Emerson Fittipaldi which will undoubtedly increase viewership hugely. Fox LATAM and Fox Sports 1 in the USA will both show a 52’ highlights package to a potential audience of over 100 million viewers – the 43 countries covered by Fox LATAM benefiting from three broadcasts to be aired over 6th and 7th December.
European audiences will have enjoyed seeing Toyota Racing’s Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi capturing the World Drivers’ Championship title in Bahrain, plus AF Corse’s Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander taking the GT Drivers crown. The all-important manufacturers championships will be settled this weekend, and Eurosport 2 and Eurosport Inter will both show part of the race LIVE, with a 30 minute highlights show on 2nd December.
Motors TV will show LIVE and direct the whole race to its 25 million viewers, and the digital Player Eurosport channel will broadcast the race live plus show a delayed highlights show. Austria, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Italy will all be broadcasting a 52-minutes highlights programme, not forgetting Denmark, Hungary and the Serbo-Croatian countries.
Fox Sports Australia will show the race live in the early hours of the morning plus a 3-hour repeat show to be broadcast three times later in the day, covering the exploits of Mark Webber among others. J Sports in Japan will be keen to see if Toyota Racing can wrap up a superb season with another title and will show three hours of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo LIVE, repeating this show three times the 52’ highlights show no fewer than four times in the weeks following the race.
TV3 in New Zealand, Channel Max Shanghai in China, Sony Six in the Indian sub-continent (45 million potential audience) and the Grand Prix Channel in Thailand will all broadcast the WEC’s 52’ highlights package. In addition, Eurosport Asia/Pacific channel will air part of the São Paulo race LIVE to its 7.8 million potential viewers in its 13 territories, plus delayed highlights on 2nd December.
Following a superb 6 Hours of Bahrain, both on and off track, BeIn Sports will continue to support the growth of the FIA WEC in the region and show the Brazilian round live plus a 52’ show at a later date.
In addition to the TV coverage, the race can be followed live and direct, together with full live timing via the FIA WEC’s ‘App’ which is available to download from the iTunes store or Google Play Store - search for ‘FIA World Endurance Championship’ or ‘FIA WEC’.
Internationally renowned endurance racing radioweb service, Radio Le Mans (www.radiolemans.com), will once again be available for its huge number of listeners all around the world. News access will also be available on EBU/Eurovision, SNTV, Reuters and Omnisports worldwide.
The whole broadcast schedule can be found HERE.
Fiona Miller
