The decision to move the Fuji round of the World Endurance Championship back a week to enable Fernando Alonso to compete has generated a fierce backlash from the sportscar racing community.
Some drivers, including Ford GT stars Olivier Pla and Harry Tincknell, said the new clash between the re-organised Fuji race and the IMSA Sportscar Championship finale at Road Atlanta on October 13th demonstrated a "lack of consideration and respect".
Many WEC drivers also compete in the four-round North American Endurance Cup, which makes up part of the IMSA calendar.
Some of those potentially affected include Pla, Tincknell, Augusto Farfus, Nicky Catsburg, Alexander Sims, Renger van der Zande, Eddie Cheever III, Bruno Senna and Mike Conway.
In January, Alonso signed to drive with Toyota in the WEC this year, alongside his commitments with McLaren-Renault in Formula 1.
However, the provisional FIA schedules placed the 6 Hours of Fuji on the same weekend as the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas (October 21st).
This week, the Toyota-owned Fuji Speedway successfully filed a request to adjust the date of the sportscar round, enabling Alonso to represent Toyota at its home event.
The change also means Toyota LMP1 driver Kamui Kobayashi will face a separate clash with the Super GT round at Autopolis on October 13th.
"Many thanks @FIAWEC I can’t believe you did it," tweeted Ford factory driver Pla, who won Petit Le Mans overall in 2016.
"Your lack of consideration and respect for the drivers who had a contract with a team in IMSA to race in NAEC the same weekend are unbelievable. I’m sure I will be not the only one to [not] be impressed."
Following Pla's statement, several other drivers and sportscar team members voiced their concerns over the issue.
"Absolutely gutted to see the @FIAWEC Fuji date change to clash with Petit Le Mans after the season has started," said Tincknell.
"Shows little respect to the teams and drivers of the WEC, reaction from the fans on Twitter says it all."
Daytona 24 and Sebring winner Pipo Derani added: "I hope @FIAWEC still remembers endurance [racing] is a team spirit sport and is not a single individual who does the show. I am just sorry for all of the drivers who will have to miss Petit or Fuji due to this ridiculous date change."
Derani's sentiments were echoed by Peter Baron, founder of IMSA prototype outfit Starworks Motorsport: "If you do the math, one WEC Alonso at Fuji is worth 15-20 [IMSA driver] conflicts at Petit Le Mans."
However, others were pleased to see Alonso's WEC schedule adjusted to enable him to race in two full world championship programmes at the same time.
"Amazing! @FIAWEC has moved the Fuji race date so Alonso can race there to avoid clash with the F1 US GP at COTA," tweeted F1 journalist James Allen.
Alonso himself tweeted an image of Godzilla rising in front of Mount Fuji, while a post from Toyota said the change would be "fantastic for our Japanese fans".
People employed in both the WEC and F1 paddocks have also praised the decision.
Opinion: A sticky situation for WEC
The WEC wanted to ensure it had a brilliant show with Alonso at Fuji, but it didn't have many alternative weekends to play with.
So, it bit the bullet, and now we have a sportscar-on-sportscar conflict to look at.
No matter which date the clash fell on – either October 13th or 21st – there was always going to be a side that lost out.
But while Fuji Speedway, Toyota and Japanese WEC fans would have been disappointed if Alonso had to skip their race for Formula 1, the most vocal and wide-reaching backlash was always going to come from the sportscar community.
Many drivers balance programmes in WEC and IMSA’s North American Endurance Cup, but now they will need to decide which race to forgo having originally expected to contest both.
It seems inward-looking on the WEC's part, because it has created a situation whereby many of its racers who have been loyal to the championship will feel they have been brushed aside by the superstar newcomer.
You have to question whether the positive impact of Alonso's presence at Toyota's home race will outweigh sacrificing the plans of dozens of drivers and team personnel.
Ultimately, it proves just how powerful Alonso's character is to international motor racing.
Let's just hope he doesn't jump the LMP1 ship after Le Mans…
Discussion about this post