The 2026 World Endurance Championship will conclude in Europe, with the deliberate occasions within the Center East changed by new races in Barcelona and Monza.
Following visits to Austin and Fuji in September, the championship was supposed to move to the Gulf in September, with the rescheduled Qatar 1812km race set for twenty-four October to be adopted by the standard Bahrain finale on 7 November.
Nevertheless, the ceasefire agreed between Iran and the US/Israel collapsed this month, with each side resuming assaults within the area and business ships persevering with to keep away from the Strait of Hormuz over worry of missile strikes. The state of affairs posed a specific problem for the WEC, which depends closely on sea freight to move its gear.
In consequence, sequence promoters the FIA and the Car Membership de l’Ouest have opted to desert the financially-lucrative Center East leg in favour of ending the season nearer to the its core European fanbase.
As a part of the up to date calendar, the WEC will make its maiden go to to Spain this 12 months, with the 6 Hours of Barcelona scheduled on 18 October, every week earlier than the now-cancelled Qatar 1812km. Earlier than being cancelled outright, the 10-hour fixture on the Lusail Worldwide Circuit had already been postponed from March to October after the outbreak of the Iran Struggle compelled the WEC to delay the beginning of the season.
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez
Photograph by: Alessio Morgese
The 2026 marketing campaign will now conclude in Italy, with the 6-hour Monza occasion going down on 7 November – the identical date initially earmarked for the Bahrain finale. No point out was made concerning the rookie check, which historically takes place a day after the season finale.
Monza beforehand hosted three WEC races between 2021-23, earlier than Imola took over because the Italian spherical of the championship.
Crucially, each Barcelona and Monza will provide a most of 25 factors to the race winner, as per the usual scoring system for six-hour occasions. Had the calendar remained unchanged, the profitable crew would have been eligible for 38 factors as a part of the bonus-point system used for longer races.
This is able to make it tougher for groups to claw again any deficit within the championship battle. The calendar change can be prone to have a detrimental influence on Toyota, which has been unbeaten in Bahrain within the final 9 years.
The final WEC marketing campaign to conclude in Europe was the 2018-19 ‘superseason’, which featured two editions of the Le Mans 24 Hours.
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