Is Qatar the price motorsport fans have to pay?

Does the World Endurance Championship need another race in the Middle East? That’s the question that needs to be asked after Qatar’s Losail International Circuit was named earlier this month as the opening round of the series in 2024. Yet it’s not an easy one to answer.

If you think of the likely make-up of the calendar come 2024, then it’s definitely a no. It doesn’t seem right that the WEC should have two races in a region where there’s limited interest in our sport, and traditional motor racing territories will be missing. And I count South America, Australia and even South Africa among them. Don’t forget that Kyalami was on the 2020-21 winter-season schedule that was blown out of the water by COVID.

And don’t get me started on the absence of the UK from the WEC schedule. It’s now more than three years since we’ve hosted a major international endurance race in this country, which quite simply is a travesty to my mind. But then, of course, I am biased.

Beyond a desire to see a balanced – or a truly world – calendar, as the WEC moves back to eight races the season after next, there’s that word that was never far from the headlines during the FIFA World Cup just finished. The football extravaganza was a sportswashing exercise designed to try to legitimise a nation that allows abusive labour practices and has a questionable record on human rights, including a ban on homosexuality.

There is always light and shade, of course. We shouldn’t forget that this World Cup was the first to be hosted by an Arab state. The alcohol-free environment helped Muslim fans feel more comfortable and the associated support that brought undoubtedly helped Morocco become not only the first African, but also the first Arab semi-finalist in history.

Yet for any of the pluses of the World Cup, a nation rich in oil and natural gas reserves bringing the WEC to its Losail facility is also sportswashing, albeit on a tiny scale in comparison. Should we object? Or perhaps that should be, can we object?

WEC doubles its fun in the Middle East with the addition of Qatar, having raced in Bahrain for a decade

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Bahrain has been on the calendar every season bar one since the WEC’s rebirth in 2012, largely without dissent. I always had the feeling that its presence on the inaugural calendar had something to do with the cancellation of the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix as a result of protests in demand of increased political freedoms. A kind of penance, if you like, paid to the FIA.

Restrictions on freedom of expression still exist in Bahrain, and its reasons for hosting major international motor races are exactly the same as Qatar’s. Yet I’ve happily flown over there to report on the event for Autosport for every race there’s been. Can I now stand up and say that the WEC shouldn’t be going to Qatar?

I’m not sure I’m qualified to draw a line in the sand and say we should go to one country and not to another. It’s complicated. I don’t believe in capital punishment, but I’ve still been a regular attendee at races in the United States for more than a quarter of a century. Do I say I’ll only report on racing in states where there’s no death penalty, so going to Watkins Glen in New York State is OK, but Daytona and Sebring in Florida isn’t?

As much as I’d like to jump up on my high horse and say that the WEC shouldn’t be going to Qatar, I can’t. The world isn’t that simple

Neither should we forget that motor racing has a long history in terms of sportswashing going back to the Nazi-funded Auto Union and Mercedes grand prix teams of the 1930s. And Formula 1, of course, visited apartheid-era South Africa right through the 1960s, 1970s and deep into the 1980s.

The economic realities of our sport explain why we visit countries and ignore political concerns. The fat fee coming from Qatar will bolster the finances of the WEC at a difficult time as the world comes out of the COVID pandemic.

Look at Formula E. It finally moved onto a stable financial footing when it signed up to go to Saudi Arabia for 10 years starting in 2019. It wasn’t beforehand, even with a grid bursting with manufacturers.

Saudi Arabia's appearance on the Formula E gave the series a big financial boost

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Just because the WEC is on the cusp of what we are all quick to describe as a golden era doesn’t mean that everything is lining up on the balance sheet.

The truth is that championships, F1 excepted, probably need the big money that come from non-established motor racing countries, whatever their records on human rights. The addition of new F1 races financed by central government has put the squeeze on traditional European races, but as far as other series go such funding has probably helped guarantee their continued existence, and will continue to do so over the years to come.

I know from speaking to Silverstone about the financial realities of hosting a WEC round. Getting a decent crowd was never easy, whether the race was held on a chilly Sunday in April or in a more fan-friendly calendar slot in late August or early September. That clearly affected the fee that the WEC could demand. Just because there will be five major car makers, Ferrari included, on the grid next year, things aren’t going to change overnight for the European races.

As much as I’d like to jump up on my high horse and say that the WEC shouldn’t be going to Qatar, I can’t. The world isn’t that simple. I want a financially healthy WEC that can exploit the incredible assets it will have with all the manufacturers on their way.

Two races in the Middle East in countries that don’t confirm to our Western liberal principles may be the price we have to pay for a thriving world championship.

While there may be moral questions about two Middle Eastern races, it may also be a question of pragmatism

Photo by: Toyota Racing