Insight: WEC's Step Into the Unknown in Qatar

What to expect as WEC prepares to race at the freshly renovated Lusail International Circuit for the first time...

When the new FIA World Endurance Championship season kicks off next weekend, it will be at an entirely new venue for the series in the form of Qatar’s Lusail International Circuit.

Well known to fans of MotoGP and, more recently, Formula 1, the 3.343-mile track is set to play host to the second-longest race on this year’s WEC calendar, the Qatar 1812km - with a maximum duration of ten hours.

For all but a handful of drivers on the grid, Lusail marks uncharted territory, partly because it has hosted so few car racing series over the years.

Notable exceptions include MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi (a four-time winner on two wheels in Qatar), 2009 GP2 Asia racers Kamui Kobayashi, Edoardo Mortara and Davide Rigon, and Jose Maria Lopez and Nicolas Lapierre, who raced there in WTCC.

However, the track was subject to extensive modifications last year, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to characterize the refurbished version of Lusail as pretty much an entirely new track built upon the exact same line as the one first constructed in 2004.

And in any case, a two-day test at the track last November means that several of the Hypercar teams and drivers who are heading to Qatar with some idea of what to expect when the season kicks off.