Since it began in 2012 the FIA World Endurance Championship has held 32 races on 10 different circuits in 9 different countries on 4 continents. In addition The Prologue has been held three times at the Circuit Paul Ricard at the start of each season since 2013. This means that there has been a lot of travel involved in moving the cars and equipment from venue to venue.
If we take the starting point for each season as the spiritual home of Endurance Racing, Le Mans and then travel from each venue to the next, we can build up a picture of how many kilometres the WEC has travelled in each of the four seasons held so far and we can also anticipate the travel for the 2016 season, which will add Mexico City to the schedule for the first time.
In the four years of the WEC the distances between the starting point at Le Mans and each of the events means the WEC has travelled a total of 192659 kilometres or 4.79 times around the earth. In 2016 another 40075km will be added to this total.
In 2012 the first ever World Endurance Championship season got underway in Florida at the 12 Hours of Sebring before heading back to Europe for races at Spa-Francorchamps, Le Mans and Silverstone. The championship then headed to Brazil, Bahrain, Japan and then concluded in Shanghai.
The total distance travelled in 2012 was 56604km, a record for the WEC.
The second season of the WEC saw a more logical route around the globe with the season starting in Europe with three events at Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans before heading to Interlagos, a new event in the USA at Circuit of The Americas which replaced Sebring, Fuji, Shanghai and concluding in Bahrain. The 2013 season also began with the Official Test at Paul Ricard in the South of France.
The route around the world in 2013 reduced the distance travelled in 2012 by over 10000km to 46247km.
The need to move the race in Brazil from August to final race of the season in November added some extra kilometres to the schedule and resulted in the total distance travelled reaching 51716km, up nearly 5500km on 2013.
The adding of the race in Germany at the Nürburgring in place of the round in Brazil saw the total distance travelled dip under 40000km for the first time. The 2014 saw four races in Europe before heading to the USA, Japan, China and the conclusion in Bahrain as in 2013.
And what of the 2016 season and the addition of a new race in Mexico City. The proximity of Mexico to Texas means that only 2000km is added with the running of a 9th race on the WEC schedule.
