Lequien: Entire 2026-27 Asian Season Could Be Held in Europe

Photo: Laurent Cartalade/MPS Agency

The entire 2026-27 Asian Le Mans Series season will be staged in Europe if the series is not able to organize races in Dubai and Abu Dhabi according to championship boss Frederic Lequien.

The revelation comes after co-promoter Stephane Ratel’s previous comments that the ACO and SRO-organized series would probably stay “closer” to Europe this coming season if the unrest in the Middle East continues.

Speaking with Sportscar365 last weekend at Le Mans, Lequien said they’ve set a deadline of mid-summer to decide on whether the originally earmarked calendar of doubleheader weekends in the United Arab Emirates, followed by the season finale at Sepang in mid-January, would be confirmed.

“The next Asian Le Mans Series could be a little bit different if the situation remains the same in the Middle East,” Lequien told Sportscar365.

“We [will] have to take some decisions during the summer and we [would] certainly race in Europe [if Middle East is not possible].”

It would effectively turn the series into a European winter championship, with no rounds on the Asian continent for the first time.

Asian LMS shifted to the Middle East, which is technically still in Asia, exclusively from 2021-23 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and returned to Southeast Asia in the 2023-24 season but kept both Dubai Autodrome and Yas Marina Circuit on the calendar.

While there were intentions of reducing the number of Middle Eastern races, the upcoming season’s calendar, which was set to be announced in the spring but was postponed due to the onset of the Iran war, had both Dubai and Abu Dhabi penciled in for the weeks following the FIA World Endurance Championship season finale in Bahrain in early November.

Now it appears organizers could fall back on races in Europe, likely at venues such as Barcelona, Paul Ricard and Portimao, in the winter months and not venture to the East at all because of what Lequien says are cost-related concerns for competitors.

This comes despite a proposal from two Australian circuits that Sportscar365 understands were in talks with LMEM to potentially take over the Middle Eastern slots that would still maintain the Sepang finale.

The Asian LMS previously raced at The Bend Motorsport Park, owned by FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 racer Yasser Shahin, in January 2020.

“We do think it’s [the] most secure way to organize the events, to do it in the south of Europe,” said Lequien. “It doesn’t make sense to maintain Sepang if we do not go to the Middle East.

“It’s going to be expensive for everyone and we don’t need that at the moment.”

The possible calendar shift to Europe comes amid the debut of the Hypercar class in the series, with between three to six cars expected according to ACO President Pierre Fillon.

It was confirmed at the annual ACO press conference in Le Mans that the LMP3 category would be moved to the newly created Asian Le Mans Cup, which is aimed to mirror the format of Michelin Le Mans Cup, which supports the European Le Mans Series.

“LMP3 will be out of the main events, so that’s why we’re creating the Asian Le Mans Cup with the P3 and GT3s,” said Lequien. “More or less, we’re working on the details but it should be the same format as we have on the Michelin Le Mans Cup in Europe.

“We have to pay attention to the duration of the day, with sunrise and sunset. It’s very difficult to tell you if it’s going to be two-hour [races] or one-hour 30 minutes right now.

“But the idea is the same, to do like the Michelin Le Mans Cup. There is a huge potential.”

Fillon, meanwhile, said the 2026-27 Asian LMS calendar will be released alongside official confirmation of the final two rounds of this year’s WEC season, which are currently still tabbed for Qatar and Bahrain but understood to have fallback options in Barcelona and Monza should the Middle East not be viable.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John