The FIA inducted all the World Endurance Championship (WEC) champions in the ‘Hall of Fame’ in an event in Paris as Fernando Alonso gets the recognition for the second time.
The ceremony, held at Automobile Club de France near the FIA HQ, started with a presentation of the drivers who won the title between 1981 and 1992. The first winner Bob Garretson became the first driver to be inducted in the 2019 Hall of Fame.
The order of the day was induction of one-time winners first and so the late Stefan Bellof was the second inductee, who was represented on stage by his brother Georg. He had won the title in 1984 as Hans-Joachim Stuck (1985) followed him up.
Following them were Raul Boesel (1987), Martin Brundle (1988), Mauro Baldi (1990), Teo Fabi (1991), Yannick Dalmas (1992), Derek Warwick (1992). The double champions of the same period were inducted then with Jacky Ickx (1982-83) leading the way.
He was followed by Derek Bell (1985-86) with Jean-Louis Schlesser (1989-90) next. The ceremony then shifted to the current period which kick-started in 2012 as the order shifted to yearly induction with Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer first up.
The 2013 champions Loic Duval, Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen followed with Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson next for 2014 – the Swiss racer was also recognised for his second WEC title in the recently concluded 2018/19 season.
It was the turn of 2015 winner Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley then, with the Kiwi also doing the double in 2017. In between, Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb took the 2016 mantle, with Earl Bamber joining Hartley & Bernhard for 2017.
The final honour was bestowed on Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Alonso for their win in 2018/19 as the Spaniard became the only driver to have two ‘Hall of Fame’ inductions after being inducted for his double F1 titles with Renault.
In fact, F1 champions were the first to be inducted in the FIA Hall of Fame, while the World Rally Championship drivers being the next before WEC. The ceremony had several cars on display as well for the attendees to have a closer look at the cars from old and new.
The cars on display were the 1983 Porsche 956, 1992 Peugeot 905 Evo 1 Bis, 2013 Audi R18 e-tron quattro and 2018 Toyota TS050 Hybrid. The FIA Hall of Fame gallery is located at the FIA Headquarters in both Paris and Geneva.
Here’s the list of WEC drivers inducted in the FIA Hall of Fame:
- Bob Garretson (1981)
- Jacky Ickx (1982, 1983)
- Stefan Bellof (1984)
- Derek Bell (1985, 1986)
- Hans-Joachim Stuck (1985)
- Raul Boesel (1987)
- Martin Brundle (1988)
- Jean-Louis Schlesser (1989, 1990)
- Mauro Baldi (1990)
- Teo Fabi (1991)
- Yannick Dalmas (1992)
- Derek Warwick (1992)
- Andre Lotterer (2012)
- Marcel Fassler (2012)
- Benoit Treluyer (2012)
- Allan McNish (2013)
- Loïc Duval (2013)
- Tom Kristensen (2013)
- Anthony Davidson (2014)
- Sebastien Buemi (2014, 2018-19)
- Brendon Hartley (2015, 2017)
- Mark Webber (2015)
- Timo Bernhard (2015, 2017)
- Marc Lieb (2016)
- Neel Jani (2016)
- Roman Dumas (2016)
- Earl Bamber (2017)
- Kazuki Nakajima (2018-19)
- Fernando Alonso (2018-19)
You can find photos from the ceremony, here.
Here’s details of WRC champions in the FIA Hall of Fame