Brendon Hartley will put WEC before Formula E if clashes continue

With a return to the FIA World Endurance Championship confirmed earlier this year it seemed clashes would rule Brendon Hartley out of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship.

However, Hartley has since signed with GEOX Dragon Racing for Season 6 of the all-electric single seater series.

There remain some calendar clashes, but TOYOTA GAZOO Racing have confirmed Hartley will put the WEC before his single seater commitments.

The 8 Hours of Bahrain currently clashes with a to-be-confirmed event on 14 December 2019. Early reports by eracing365 suggest that TBC date may be scrapped entirely by the Formula E organisers, which would alleviate any problems.

The 1000 Miles of Sebring on 20 March next year currently clashes with a Formula E race in China on the same weekend. The host city for the race hasn’t been announced, but is expected to take place in Sanya again as it did in Season 5. The China race is reportedly set to move forward a week though.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing told eracing365: “In the event of a clash between WEC and Formula E races, Brendon will give priority to his WEC commitments.”

If the clashes remain Hartley will have to step down for those two weekends with priority firmly on the 2019-’20 FIA World Endurance Championship alongside Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima.

Hartley isn’t the only driver facing the same issues. Buemi will likely return for the Nissan e.dams outfit. 

2019–'20 FIA World Endurance Championship 

Round	Race	Circuit	Date
1	4 Hours of Silverstone	Silverstone Circuit	1 September 2019
2	6 Hours of Fuji	Fuji Speedway	6 October 2019
3	4 Hours of Shanghai	Shanghai International Circuit	10 November 2019
4	8 Hours of Bahrain	Bahrain International Circuit	14 December 2019
5	6 Hours of São Paulo	Autódromo José Carlos Pace	1 February 2020
6	1000 Miles of Sebring	Sebring International Raceway	20 March 2020
7	6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps	25 April 2020
8	24 Hours of Le Mans	Circuit de la Sarthe	13–14 June 2020

2018–19 ABB FIA Formula E Championship

_{Photo: TOYOTA GAZOO Racing}