Five things to look out for in the WEC’s Fuji 6 Hours

Just three weeks after the Lone Star Le Mans, the World Endurance Championship is back in action, with Fuji Speedway hosting the sixth round of the 2026 season.

Naturally, all eyes will be on home favourite Toyota, which remains the most successful manufacturer at Fuji across the WEC’s LMP1 and Hypercar eras. 

But plenty of attention will also be on the title fight, with BMW and potentially even Ferrari chasing the Japanese marque for Hypercar honours.

In recent years, the Fuji 6 Hours has served as the penultimate round of the championship, helping shape the title battles ahead of the traditional season finale in Bahrain.

However, following changes to the 2026 calendar, Fuji will instead lead into two six-hour races in Europe, with Barcelona and Monza replacing the cancelled rounds in Qatar and Bahrain.

The title fight remains finely poised heading into the weekend, with the two leading crews failing to score last time out at Austin. As such, the #20 BMW (Robin Frijns and Rene Rast) and the #7 Toyota (Nyck de Vries, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway) crews remained tied on 75 points, with the #8 Toyota (Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa) a further 11 points adrift in third.

Toyota on home ground 

The introduction of the revised TR010 LMH has already helped Toyota re-establish itself as a frontrunner in the WEC. The Cologne-based squad started the campaign with a victory in the Imola opener, followed it up with an emphatic triumph at the Le Mans 24 hours, and was on course to make it three wins in five races at Austin until a late technical problem struck the #7 car crewed by Nyck de Vries, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi.

Given its track record at Fuji, Toyota again has to be considered one of the favourites – if not the outright favourite – for this weekend’s six-hour race. The Japanese marque was particularly dominant at its self-owned track in the WEC’s LMP1 era, winning seven out of eight races between 2012 and ‘19. 

When Fuji returned to the calendar following a two-year, COVID-induced absence, Toyota again asserted its authority, scoring back-to-back wins in 2022 and ‘23 with its new Hypercar challenger.

The two Fuji races have proved to be more difficult, with the 2025 event proving particularly disastrous for Toyota. But the team will be keen to bounce back from those setbacks and return to winning ways in front of its home crowd.

A big points haul at Fuji is more important for Toyota than ever. The cancellation of the Bahrain 8 Hours, which awarded bonus points, means it can no longer rely on its strongest venue to make up ground in the title fight. Instead, the Japanese marque will need to maximise its score at home before the championship heads back to Europe for the final two rounds. 

Ferrari’s potential title challenge

#50 Ferrari – AF Corse, Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina

Photo by: Ferrari

After some relatively low-key results in the first half of the season, Ferrari’s chances of defending its WEC titles appeared all but over. But a first victory in over 12 months at Austin has changed the equation, bringing the Prancing Horse back into play.

Whether Ferrari goes from being an outside title contender into a genuine championship challenger will depend upon how it fares in the Fuji 6 Hours, as it still has significant ground to make up to BMW and Toyota.

In the drivers’ standings, Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi (#51 Ferrari) trail the championship leaders by 17 points, while Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco face a deficit of 21 points.

Japan has never been a strong suit for the 499P LMH. Even when Ferrari finished fourth and fifth in its first Hypercar season in 2023, it ended up a lap down on the race winner. The 2024 race was also quite challenging, while its 2025 challenge was wrecked by a multi-car pile-up triggered by Robert Kubica in AF Corse’s satellite #83 entry.

BMW’s response to adversity

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello, Dries Vanthoor

Photo by: James Moy Photography via Getty Images

BMW will be aiming to bounce from a disastrous showing in the Lone Star Le Mans at Fuji this weekend. 

After victories at Spa and Sao Paolo, plus a second-place finish at Le Mans in between, the German manufacturer had momentum on its side in the title race. But Austin dealt the squad its first major blow of 2026, as it simply lacked the pace to fight at the front.

Eighth place was all it could manage in the WEC’s US round, and it was fortunate that the #7 Toyota retired from the lead of the race due to mechanical drama. With the championship so finely poised, BMW cannot afford another tough weekend as it fights for its maiden titles in Hypercar. 

Fuji will offer an early indication of whether BMW can put its Austin struggles behind it and strengthen its championship challenge. The updates introduced to the M Hybrid V8 over the winter have significantly improved its fortunes, but BMW now needs to extract the maximum from that package during the final three rounds of the season. 

Alpine returns to scene of maiden win

Race winner #35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi

Photo by: Andreas Beil

While Fuji is best known as Toyota’s home race, the 4.56km circuit also holds special memories for Alpine. It was at this track where Alpine scored its first Hypercar win with the A424 LMDh last year, with a strategic masterclass from the Signatech pitwall guiding Ferdinand Habsburg, Charles Milesi and Paul-Loup Chatin to victory.

Alpine also arrives at Fuji on the back of its first podium finish of the year, with Habsburg, Milesi and Antonio Felix da Costa having finished last time out at Fuji. That result should provide a much-needed boost to the French manufacturer as it aims to end its three-year Hypercar journey on a high.

The Renault Group brand has made a significant change for the Japan round, opting for two-driver crews in both cars. This shift sees both da Costa and Fred Makowiecki being benched for the sixth round of the season, and potentially the rest of the year.

Even if Alpine isn’t able to mix with the likes of Toyota, BMW and Ferrari this weekend, the team’s 2025 result should provide motivation to Genesis and Aston Martin, which have been making rapid strides in recent races.

Intensifying LMGT3 battle

#87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3: Petru Umbrarescu, Clemens Schmid, Jose Maria Lopez

Photo by: JEP

The battle for the LMGT3 title is set to heat up this weekend, with TF Sport no longer having a significant buffer over its rivals. A 12th-place finish for the #33 Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Jonny Edgar, Ben Keating and Nicky Catsburg at Austin has given rivals a sniff of victory in the championship race heading to Fuji.

A series of consistent results for Francois Heriau, Alessio Rovera and Simon Mann have elevated the crew of the #21 AF Corse Ferrari to second in the standings, 22 points down on the leading Corvette crew. 

The next three teams in the standings, comprising the two Manthey Porsches and the #23 Heart of Aston Martin, are separated by just a single point, showing how close the battle has become in the GT ranks.

With WRT BMW and Garage 59 McLaren having also shown flashes of pace, and TF Sport Lexus racing on home soil, the title fight could blow wide open this weekend.

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– The Motorsport.com Team

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