After the 2025 FIA WEC season finale in Bahrain, Ferrari celebrated its first WEC Hypercar Manufacturers’ World Championship, and James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and Antonio Giovinazzi partied into the night after capturing the Drivers’ title.
The Italian marque’s programme had taken another big step forward, winning four races and a third consecutive Le Mans 24 Hours. Toyota’s years of dominance and position as the benchmark, meanwhile, looked like they were quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Fast forward 11 months, and the Japanese marque can boast both a sixth Le Mans victory and an eighth WEC Manufacturers’ crown, after clinching the latter with a race to spare in Barcelona last night. Toyota’s response to its toughest WEC season was to put together its most impressive one, after spending the off-season analysing its shortcomings and homologating an EVO for its Hypercar.
There were no rash decisions or sweeping changes to its driver line-up; instead, it took a methodical, business-like approach to the 2026 season. It worked perfectly, allowing them to come away with the complete set of prizes: a Le Mans win and both Hypercar titles.
“I think this year, we have been strong, consistently,” Kamui Kobayashi, Toyota team principal and driver of the #7 said. “We’ve not had the best car sometimes, but we scored big points. As a team, we just took a big step this year. Of course, the car has been better, but we also changed from GR to Toyota Racing this year; there have been organisational changes. We worked hard.
“We struggled in Le Mans recently, and everybody said that when the competition was back in the World Endurance Championship, Toyota was not strong enough. But this year, we showed that, winning Le Mans and the Manufacturers’ title again.”
2026 saw the rulemakers introduce a new, secretive approach to BoP. We may never find out just what this year’s tables looked like. But in hindsight, Toyota still had to work for it: Barcelona was the only race this season where it looked head and shoulders above the rest, and totally untouchable.
Was the BoP off? Was it the circuit playing to the strengths of Toyota’s car? Did its closest competitors suffer most from errors and poor luck? Was it all three? They’re all valid points to debate.
The TR010 remains the best Hypercar in the field at looking after its tyres in all conditions though, a key to victory on the notoriously abrasive Barcelona surface. And beyond a small time penalty for a race start infringement for the #8, the team managed to execute a 1-2 finish perfectly. That combination was enough to make the final result feel like a formality by the halfway mark.
The level of dominance surprised race winner Brendon Hartley. “We were nervous coming in,” he said. “We thought we’d have a big disadvantage here as we didn’t test. I think some of it did come down to tyre degradation though, as it’s historically been one of our strongest points.
“It wasn’t an easy task, but it shows the massive turnaround in the team from last year. We’ve had a few tough times, so I’m proud of everyone and proud to be a part of a project like this.”
The updated WRT BMW M Hybrid V8s emerged as legitimate title contenders this year, winning races and fighting for the win at Le Mans. Ferrari, despite its down year, also looked destined to fight for more titles on home soil at Monza with three podiums and a win from its factory 499Ps.
But in the end, both of Toyota’s challengers faded. BMW’s early-season form, particularly with the #20 crew, petered out, and Ferrari, in hindsight, couldn’t match Toyota when it mattered most.
The former will rely on the same package in 2027, and attempt to take another step forward by building on the data it collected this season. The latter is set to overhaul its car, with testing of a new aero package ongoing, hoping to replicate Toyota’s shift in momentum.
“When they’ve needed to go fast, they (Toyota) go fast,” Ferrari driver Miguel Molina (above), who finished third on the road in Barcelona in the #50, said to DSC in assessment. “They showed it in Le Mans and again here. When they need to open the throttle, they open it. It was a good chance for them to win the championship here, and they did it with first and second.
“Their pace was so consistent, it wasn’t even about degradation; it was about pure pace. They were one second faster in all conditions.”
In addition to winning the Manufacturers’ title, the fact that one of Toyota’s crews is now guaranteed to take the Drivers’ honours too will sting. The strength of its six-man full-season driver roster has ensured they’re the only ones mathematically in the running at Monza.
“It does feel like a missed opportunity,” BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde told DSC. “You never know if or when you’ll get the chance again, so you want to grab it with both hands when it comes along.
“Experience matters; we’re obviously a lot newer to the championship. It’s not easy to come here and start smoking guys like Toyota and Ferrari, even if we were closer and put together a positive few months.”
Hartley, rightly, stressed that yesterday was a “day about the team”, and that nobody was going to spend the evening thinking about the Drivers’ title. Kobayashi did, however, make it clear that there will be no team orders in the deciding race, and that both crews will be allowed to go for it.
“We can fight big time in the last race,” he said. “Then we’ll see who is going to Shanghai for the (FIA) Awards Gala!
“We can enjoy right now, then next year is going to be even harder. McLaren is back, Ford is back, the competition will be tougher, and there’s one more race. But we’ll do our best to run it back again.”
Images courtesy of DPPI & Paul Foster
