Review World Endurance Championship 2026 (PDF)

Fifteen seasons at the heart of the World Endurance Championship

Created in 2012 by the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, the World Endurance Championship revived an international endurance world championship bringing together prototypes and Grand Touring cars. The first season saw Audi secure the manufacturers’ title with the R18 e-tron quattro, while Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer became the first FIA World Endurance Champions after, among other achievements, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Review World Endurance Championship 2026 covers this history across fifteen seasons, from 2012 to 2026, while documenting the 2026 season in detail. The book places each race within the evolution of a championship that has experienced several generations of prototypes, the arrival of new manufacturers and the progressive transformation of its categories.

Audi, Toyota, Porsche, Ferrari, Peugeot, Alpine, BMW, Cadillac and Aston Martin are among the manufacturers that have shaped the different eras of the WEC. Alongside these manufacturers is the history of the drivers and crews who have built the championship’s record, from the early LMP1 years to the current Hypercar era.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans occupies a special place in this history. As the centrepiece of the calendar, the French endurance classic has been one of the championship’s defining events since 2012, providing a benchmark for the evolution of the prototypes competing at the highest level of world endurance racing.

The 2026 season takes place during a particularly rich period for the WEC. The field brings together 14 manufacturers, with 17 Hypercars and 18 LMGT3 cars. Alpine, Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Genesis, Peugeot and Toyota compete in Hypercar, while the LMGT3 category includes Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Ford, Lexus, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche.

The season also marks the arrival of Genesis in the Hypercar category with the Genesis GMR-001, while Toyota enters a further development of its GR010 Hybrid. The field demonstrates the diversity that has returned to the championship, with manufacturers competing using different technologies and engineering philosophies within the same leading category.

The 2026 calendar initially followed the eight-event structure established in recent years. The Qatar and Bahrain events were subsequently affected by the geopolitical situation in the Middle East, leading to changes to the original schedule. Barcelona and Monza were added as replacement events, giving the season a new European conclusion.

A major highlight of the 2026 season came at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where Toyota secured victory in the 94th edition of the race. The No. 7 Toyota of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries took the overall win, four years after Toyota’s previous victory at Le Mans. For Conway and Kobayashi it was their second Le Mans victory, while de Vries claimed his first.

The book brings together the essential information from every meeting: practice sessions, qualifying, races, results, drivers, crews, teams, manufacturers, categories, circuits and statistics. The 2026 season is documented session by session, while the results from the previous fourteen seasons place every performance within the broader continuity of the championship’s history.

Review World Endurance Championship 2026 is not a journalistic account of current WEC events. It is an archive designed to be consulted, compared and preserved: a book through which readers can follow the evolution of manufacturers, crews, categories and circuits, while preserving a structured record of fifteen seasons of world endurance racing.

Fifteen seasons. Hundreds of races. Leading manufacturers, drivers and crews. Prototypes and GT cars. An archive of the World Endurance Championship, with the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the heart of its history.