2026 FIA WEC Lone Star Le Mans

This 2026 FIA WEC Lone Star Le Mans race report was compiled by regular endurance-racing correspondent and motorsport fundi, Dr Nick van der Meulen.

Lone Star Le Mans, the fifth round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship, took place at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), Texas. The event saw a storm occur on race day, along with sweltering conditions, resulting in two formation laps behind the safety car before the entrants were released to race.

Split Seconds

Hyperpole was a frenetic affair: the Hypercar class had their fastest four covered by a mere 0,05 seconds. Ferrari #51 (Giovinazzi/Pier Guidi/Calado) pipped Cadillac #38 (Bamber/Bourdais/Aitken) for pole position. Alpine #35 (Habsburg/Da Costa/Milesi) and Aston Martin #007 (Tincknell/Gamble) completed the second row of the grid. After dominating the event at Sao Paulo, neither BMW made the cut for Hyperpole.

Toyota #7 and BMW #20 began the round leading the world championship, level on points. Fans were hoping for a titanic battle between the championship protagonists. This did not come to pass, but they were treated to a wonderful battle between Ferrari, Alpine, Cadillac, Aston Martin and even Genesis.

Falling minutes short

At half distance, the top six runners were covered by less than 5 seconds. Ferrari #51 and Cadillac #38 began strongly, with Alpines #35 and #36 (Makowiecki/Gounon/Martins) snapping at their heels. Toyota #7 (De Vries/Conway/Kobayashi) began carving their way through the field, after a modest start. Nyck De Vries was particularly impressive in his stints, scything through the field to take the lead shortly after half distance. It looked like they would romp off to victory, but tragedy struck the team with 10 minutes remaining. The machine suffered a hydraulics failure and Kobayashi was forced to retire the car.

Fortuitous for Ferrari

Ferrari #50 (Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen) capitalised on Toyota’s misfortune, claiming victory after six hours of racing. They took up the mantle of challenging the leaders once the sister car #51 faltered, after a pitstop cost them 30 seconds more than their rivals at half distance. Ferrari #51 failed to score points, finishing 11^th overall. The 2024 victors of the event, AF Corse Ferrari #83 (Kubica/Hanson/Ye), did not feature among the protagonists and did not score points.

“I’m really happy,” enthused Molina, who like team-mates Fuoco and Nielsen, had not stood atop the highest step of the FIA WEC rostrum since last year’s Qatar curtain-raising contest. “We’ve been working really hard behind-the-scenes to try to get back to this position and we did a really good race with no mistakes. In the end, it was our day, so big thanks to the team. Now, we need to take this momentum forward with us!”

JOTA Cadillac #38 featured strongly for the entire Lone Star 6-hour event. If they were not leading overall, they were in the hunt for the lead. They did not manage to take advantage of Toyota’s misfortune and claim victory, but finished a fine second. The sister #12 machine (Stevens/R. Taylor/Nato) had a more challenging day, however, they were rewarded for their efforts with points for ninth place.

Solid contenders

Alpine showed great pace throughout the race, with both machines running in the battle for the lead at half race distance. The #36 machine managed to pass the sister machine and challenge Cadillac and Toyota for position, but it was #35 who was rewarded with the bottom step of the podium, while #36 finished fifth.

Aston Martin had mixed fortunes in Texas: one car ran competitively at the front of the field, while the other struggled at the back of the class in qualifying as well as the race. The #007 Valkyrie (Tincknell/Gamble) screamed to the chequered flag in fourth place.

Toyota will feel aggrieved due to #7’s late-race drama, forcing them into retirement. There will be scant solace that archrival, WRT BMW #20, also failed to score points. Toyota #8 (Buemi/Hartley/Hirakawa) had a decent start to the race but, due to the interchangeable conditions in the race’s early stages, they gambled on an alternate strategy (one of many competitors to do so). They would periodically bounce to the top of the leader board, but the race did not play out in their favour and they scored points for sixth place.

Strong rookies

Genesis Magma Racing featured well at Austin, with #17 (Lotterer/Derani/Jaubert) qualifying well and running strongly at the sweltering six-hour event. Lotterer challenged Ferrari #50 for third position early in the race, but missed his braking point and spinning as a result. He recovered quickly and the team remained competitive throughout the race. They will be encouraged with their seventh-place finish.

WRT BMW had a nightmare event, after dominating the previous race at Sao Paulo. Neither car looked competitive and it was fortunate that #15 (D. Vanthoor/Marciello/Magnussen) scored points for finishing eighth. Joint championship leaders #20 (Rast/S. van der Linde/Frijns) was classified 12th. The final point on offer was claimed by Peugeot #94 (Di Resta/Vandoorne/Cassidy), which looked particularly feisty in the hands of Di Resta as he battled for positions in the points.

LMGT3 battle

The two Heart of Racing Aston Martins and both Ford Mustang entries dominated the LMGT3 class in the early stages of the event, with Manthey Racing Porsche #91 also making a showing and leading at one stage. Polesitter #23 (Barrichello/Newell/Adam) briefly took the lead, before being overwhelmed by Ford #77 (Powell/Tuck/Priaulx). A frenetic battle ensued between Porsche #91, Ford #88 (Gattuso/Levorato/Sargeant) and #77, Aston Martin #23, eventual winners #27 (James/Robichon/Drudi), with these five remaining as race protagonists.

WRT BMW #32 also ran with the leaders for a short period, before having to pit to have its rear axle replaced! Aston Martin #27 held off Porsche #91 for victory, While Aston Martin #23 rounded off the podium. Ford #88 faded with mechanical issues as the race progressed, While Ford #77 finished fifth, behind Vista AF Corse Ferrari #21 (Hériau/Mann/Rovera).

Point scorers

The top ten finishers in each class score points. There are three points-scoring allocation forms, with different allocations for 6-hour, 8-10-hour and 24-hour events, respectively.

Kobayashi/Conway/De Vries remained tied with Rast/Frijns to lead the Hypercar championship with 75 points, ahead of Sheldon van der Linde with 65 points. Hartley/Hirakawa/Buemi lie fourth with 64 points, while Pier Guidi/Giovinazzi/Calado have 58 points.

In the LMGT3 class, Jonny Edgar leads with 76 points ahead of teammates Nicky Catsburg (72 points) and Ben Keating (54 points). Hériau/Mann/Rovera are tied with Keating on 54 points, while Pera/Lietz/Shahin and Newell/Adam are tied with 49 points each.

Heading east

The sixth round of the World Endurance Championship takes place at Fuji (6 Hours of Fuji), Japan on 27 September 2026. The calendar has recently changed due to geopolitical events. The final two rounds of the season will move from the Middle East to Europe. The 6 Hours of Barcelona will run on 18 October and the season will be finalised with the 6 Hours of Monza on 8 November.

Click here to read about the potential changes to the Formula One calendar as well.

The 2027 FIA WEC season is hotly anticipated, with the addition of another two marques to the Hypercar grid, namely McLaren and Ford. McLaren announced their machine in May and it made its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July. Ford’s hypercar project broke cover more recently, with videos being released to social media of their new mount thundering around Paul Ricard. They were heavily promoted at COTA, as they plan to run a two-car team in WEC next season.