WEC 100 branding
To celebrate the FIA WEC’s 100th race on Sunday here in Fuji, there’s plenty of branding across the circuit and grid, including WEC 100 iconography on the race control building, podium, safety car, and on the number panels on each of the cars in the field.
Every day is a school day
The annual tradition of the WEC welcoming school kids to the paddock in the build-up to the race weekend has continued this week.
250 kids from local schools were on site today, being toured through the garages of multiple teams with representatives from the WEC and Fuji Speedway.
Conway and Jaminet present
A stroll down pit lane confirmed the tweaks to the entry list on the driver front.
Mike Conway was on site today for his return to the Toyota Gazoo Racing team after missing the CoTA race due to injury, and Mathieu Jaminet’s name is across Porsche Penske Motorsport’s #5 garage; the Frenchman is here competing in the seat usually occupied by Michael Christensen.
Michelin and Goodyear tyre selections
For this weekend’s action, Michelin has brought with it the Soft and Medium compound Hypercar tyres for the teams to use, after bringing the Medium and Hard the past two years.
Last year, the teams used the medium throughout the race, and Michelin believes that the addition of the Soft option will add another layer of strategy if the temperature cools or we experience changeable conditions.
Meanwhile, in LMGT3, Goodyear’s Eagle Medium returns after two races with the new-for-2025 Hards. It is slated to be the final appearance of the yellow labelled Eagles this season as the Hard is set to be taken to Bahrain in November.
Support races on site
This weekend, there are two support series on the bill for the WEC, with teams from the Formula Regional Japanese Championship and Porsche Carrera Cup Japan on site and set up.
It’s the penultimate round of Formula Regional, and the finale for Carrera Cup. The championship race in the latter is particularly tight, with Iori Kimura from Sky Racing leading Hyper Water Racing’s Kazuhisa Urabe by a single point with two races to go during this weekend’s meeting.
Jansonnie: “Super hard to tell” if Peugeot can build on CoTA podium
Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie says it’s hard to gauge how competitive the 9X8s will be this weekend at Fuji. The French brand is fresh from finishing third and fourth with its Hypercars at CoTA, but after another yo-yo season, Jansonnie finds it hard to set expectations.
“Austin was a good weekend for us, it was a bit surprising, but over the weekend, we were happy in practice and quali, we were closer than we expected after in 2024 it was not a good track for us,” he told reporters.
“We are happy with what we achieved. Here it is super hard to tell, we have the reference from last year, and it was a good track for us performance-wise, but this season, when you’ve come to a track with a successful result last year, you’ve had the opposite result. It tells you everyone is improving, so references are not valid anymore. It’s hard to play the game of predictions.”
Since the last race in the US, Peugeot has been out testing, staying out in Austin in the days after Lone Star Le Mans. The running gave its new-for-2026 drivers Nick Cassidy and Theo Pourchaire a chance to turn some laps in preparation for their first campaign. Jansonnie said it was a positive experience.
“It was a very big test for us with a huge test plan. It was dense for the drivers and technically. We had no reliability issues with two cars,” he added.
“We tried to give both drivers some laps with old tyres to get used to the track, then fresher tyres and more runs, including two long stints to practice tyre management.”
Pourchaire will make his race debut in Bahrain, while Cassidy may be called up for the Rookie Test to get some additional mileage in before 2026.
T1 exit altered
The runoff at the exit of Turn 1 at the Fuji Speedway has been altered ahead of this year’s WEC race. Last year, an issue with the kerbs and runoff caused a lengthy red flag during practice due to chunks of brick coming loose.
This year, the profile of the runoff has been changed with the addition of a new surface, which hopefully will prevent any further dramas.
Supersub Turner returns
With Ant Davidson otherwise engaged, the WEC TV booth trio will be completed alongside Martin Haven and Graham Goodwin by Darren Turner once again in Fuji. The Aston Martin Racing legend has seven WEC starts at Fuji with a GTE Pro win in 2013, the ‘Race That Never Was.’
On pit lane, Bruce Jouanny is back and will be joined again by Shea Adam.
