How the revised WEC 2026 calendar impacts title fight
by Rachit Thukral · AutosportWhile the WEC typically sees a dip in interest following Le Mans, the addition of two new races in Europe has injected new life into the season, while fundamentally altering the title battle
The second half of the 2026 World Endurance Championship promises an intense fight, with four rounds scheduled in the span of just over two months.
The calendar had to be reshuffled twice in the wake of the Iran war, and the impact of the changes is multifold. The gap left by the cancelled Qatar round has been filled by a first-ever WEC visit to Barcelona, while Monza replaces Bahrain as the season finale.
Those changes have also altered the championship itself.
As has already been documented, both six-hour races in Barcelona and Monza will award a maximum of 25 points to the winning crews, as is standard for regular WEC rounds. By contrast, both the Qatar 1812km and the Bahrain 8 Hours were bonus-points events, offering up to 38 points.
Fewer points available
The change in the scoring system is significant. With 26 fewer points now available, the revised calendar effectively removes the equivalent of an entire six-hour race from the championship.
Furthermore, albeit halfway through the season, roughly 55% of the available points has already been handed out. That is because the Le Mans 24 Hours, which awards double the usual points, has already happened.
The cancellation of Bahrain also increases the importance of Le Mans. In previous years, a disappointing result at La Sarthe could be offset by a strong finish in the eight-hour Bahrain finale, where 38 points are on offer. In 2024, for example, Toyota overturned Porsche's advantage to clinch the manufacturers' championship in Bahrain. Such a turnaround will now be much harder to achieve.
However, with four rounds remaining, there still is plenty to play for. A total of 104 points are available across the final run of races across the Americas, Asia and Europe, including the additional point awarded at each round for claiming pole position. Given no team has scored more than 75 points so far, both championships remain wide open.
Different tracks
While the WEC isn’t heading into uncharted territory, Barcelona and Monza nevertheless present a very different challenge to the circuits they replace.
Aside from the Prologue in 2019-20, the WEC has never visited Barcelona. While some teams and drivers who were present for that pre-season test are still on the grid, the championship has fundamentally changed since then. LMP1 has been replaced by Hypercar, LMP2 has been axed, while the GTE classes have been replaced by a single Pro-Am LMGT3 division.
Even so, teams won't be starting from scratch. Multiple manufacturers have tested their hypercars at Barcelona in recent years, while some LMGT3 outfits have even raced at the track in GT World Challenge Europe. As such, they won’t be going into the race completely blind.
Meanwhile, Monza was an annual fixture on the calendar between 2021-23, until Imola replaced it as the Italian round of the championship, meaning most teams should have plenty of data about the 5.7km track. Ferrari also used Monza in July to compare its current 499P against its 2027 development car.
Top speed and low drag, as always, will be crucial at Monza, making the Balance of Performance particularly influential on the circuit's long straights. One must also consider how different Barcelona and Monza are to Qatar and Bahrain respectively.
Ferrari claimed a landmark podium lockout on the WEC’s last trip to Losail, while Toyota has won each of the last eight races at Sakhir. Although it is impossible to know how this year's cancelled events would have unfolded, Toyota's renowned tyre management would likely have made the TR010 unbeatable in Bahrain. As such, the changes to the calendar deal a big blow to Toyota’s hopes of securing a first drivers’ title since 2023.
Championship contenders
At the halfway point of the season, two crews are tied at the top of the Hypercar standings. Robin Frijns and Rene Rast amassed 75 points across the opening four rounds in the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8, matching the tally of Le Mans winners Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway in the #7 Toyota.
Sheldon van der Linde, the third driver in the #20 BMW, is officially third in the standings, but cannot actually contend for the title after missing the Imola opener due to a clash with the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
Excluding van der Linde from the fight, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi (#51 Ferrari 499P) are effectively third on the table on 57 points. Trailing them by just one point are Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa in the #8 Toyota.
This means BMW and Toyota are the prime contenders for the championship, with Ferrari also in the hunt despite failing to score a win so far.
Cadillac has had a relatively difficult season so far, with Norman Nato and Will Stevens trailing the leading two crews by 33 points in their Jota-entered #12 V-Series.R.
In the manufacturers’ championship, Toyota leads BMW by five points, with Ferrari another 39 points adrift in third place.
In LMGT3, the #33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R has a healthy advantage following its class victory at Le Mans, but Jonny Edgar is the only driver among the crew to have taken part in all four races so far.
Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Yasser Shahin sit second aboard the #92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R, 27 points behind Edgar’s Corvette.
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