FIA and ACO deny a WEC crisis, but the deal only runs to 2027
A day after reports that the FIA might drop the ACO as WEC promoter and cost Le Mans its world championship status, both organisations have pushed back. The deal, they say, is safe, at least until the end of 2027.
This is the follow-up to a story we covered earlier this week. Germany's Auto Motor und Sport reported that the contracts underpinning the World Endurance Championship had expired, that talks had stalled, and that the FIA was weighing a new promoter, a scenario that could have stripped the 24 Hours of Le Mans of its championship status. On 18 September, the FIA and the ACO issued statements calling that reporting inaccurate.
What the two sides actually said
The FIA confirmed that “the current agreement with ACO remains in place until the end of 2027,” and that the two are “continuing discussions regarding an extension of the promoter agreement.” The ACO, for its part, said talks about the WEC's future beyond 2027 are “progressing as planned, in a constructive spirit and with a shared commitment.” Both stressed they remain “fully committed” to the partnership. In short: there is a deal, it runs through 2027, and nobody is launching a public tender.
What they did not address
The rebuttal is narrower than it first looks. Neither body denied the more pointed claims in the German report, that relations between FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem and ACO President Pierre Fillon have soured, or the questions over the future of FIA Endurance Commission president Richard Mille. And the key word in the FIA's own statement is “extension”: the current contract is secure, but the terms for what happens after 2027, the money, the governance, the control, are precisely what is still on the table. It confirms this is a live negotiation, not a settled one, and it has been a bumpy stretch for the ACO more broadly, which is also managing a struggling new Hypercar class in the Asian Le Mans Series.
AutoNext Take
This is the reassurance the paddock needed, and it is worth taking at face value: the WEC is not about to lose Le Mans, and the 2027 season is safe. When both parties put out coordinated statements this quickly, they are protecting a championship, and the manufacturer money flowing into it, from exactly the kind of instability the original report implied.
But it also confirms what we said at the time: this is a negotiation, not a crisis. The peace is guaranteed only to the end of 2027, and everything the two sides are really arguing about sits in the “beyond 2027” talks they politely call constructive. With Ferrari re-signing its Le Mans-winning drivers and manufacturers committing long-term, the industry clearly expects this to be sorted. The smart reading is unchanged: expect a deal, but do not expect it to be quiet.
