The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup and the FIA World Endurance Championship will race on the same weekend in October, with Portimao and Barcelona hosting events on the exact same dates. As a result, SRO Motorsports Group has been forced to revise the schedule for what will be the final Endurance Cup round of the 2026 season.
The clash emerged after the WEC confirmed that that the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will replace Qatar as the penultimate round of the 2026 campaign. It is a familiar problem in endurance and GT racing, where scheduling conflicts regularly arise between major championships including IMSA, the DTM, the European Le Mans Series and International GT Open, leaving drivers and teams with difficult choices.
SRO, led by Stephane Ratel, quickly sought a solution and opted to bring the three-hour Algarve race forward to the evening of Saturday 17 October, with the start scheduled for 5:00pm local time.
The idea is to give anyone committed to both championships the chance to attempt the double-header, although it will be far from straightforward. The two circuits are more than 10 hours apart by road, making flying the only realistic option. Drivers would need to travel from Barcelona to Faro, the nearest airport to Portimao, before making the roughly one-hour drive to the circuit. Portugal’s one-hour time difference compared to Spain could also work slightly in their favour.
“Honestly, I still don’t know what the drivers will be able to do or what choices they will make, but the idea is to allow them to compete in both series,” Ratel told Motorsport.com when asked about the issue during the Misano weekend.
So who could be forced into this logistical marathon?
The first factor will be contractual priorities, particularly for drivers representing different manufacturers in each championship.
That is the case for Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon, who race a Mercedes for Verstappen Racing in GT World Challenge Europe while holding full-season WEC drives with Genesis and Alpine respectively.
Championship position will also be a key consideration. Since Barcelona hosts a six-hour race, both Genesis and Alpine could potentially field two-driver line-ups to ease the situation if required.
#21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 EVO: François Heriau, Simon Mann, Alessio Rovera
Photo by: FIAWEC – DPPI
Mercedes also faces a dilemma with Maxime Martin, who combines his WEC LMGT3 programme with Iron Lynx and a GT World Challenge Europe PRO campaign with GetSpeed Performance.
Aston Martin has a similar issue involving Mattia Drudi and Marco Sorensen. Drudi is a full-time driver for The Heart of Racing in WEC LMGT3, while Sorensen races the Valkyrie in the Hypercar class. Both are also team-mates in Comtoyou Racing’s #007 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in GT World Challenge Europe, meaning a solution will have to be found. Sorensen’s situation may be the easier one to resolve, with THOR Team potentially able to draft in one of its IMSA drivers, most likely Roman De Angelis or Ross Gunn, as a substitute.
Ferrari’s position is equally complicated. Alessio Rovera is the regular driver of the #21 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 and remains in the title fight, while Nicklas Nielsen is a key member of the #50 Ferrari 499P Hypercar line-up. Both are also central to the #51 Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO entered in GT World Challenge Europe, leaving Ferrari with difficult decisions that could depend on the championship standings.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that AF Corse operates Ferrari’s Hypercar, LMGT3 and GT World Challenge programmes. Although the Italian team has considerable resources, it will also have to assess whether it has sufficient personnel available to cover all three programmes simultaneously.
McLaren and Garage 59 face a similar challenge after the British squad took over operation of the manufacturer’s WEC 720S LMGT3 programme from United Autosports this season. Tom Fleming, Benjamin Goethe and Marvin Kirchhofer all race in both championships, while Antares Au drives for McLaren in one series and Rutronik Racing’s Porsche in the other.
Perhaps the biggest organisational headache belongs to Team WRT, despite its recent expansion to support BMW’s IMSA Hypercar programme. The Belgian outfit fields at least three BMW M4 GT3 EVOs in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup while also running BMW’s Hypercar and LMGT3 entries in the WEC.
#27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3: Ian James, Zacharie Robichon, Mattia Drudi
Photo by: James Moy Photography via Getty Images
Raffaele Marciello competes in the BMW M Hybrid V8, while Augusto Farfus and Dan Harper race the M4 GT3 EVO. Marciello and Farfus also drive for Rowe Racing in GT World Challenge Europe, while Harper remains with WRT alongside Valentino Rossi. Sean Gelael faces a different dilemma, as the Indonesian is not a BMW factory driver and must decide whether to race WRT’s #32 BMW in the WEC or AF Corse’s #50 Ferrari in GT World Challenge Europe.
There is still plenty of time before the October clash for teams and manufacturers to finalise their plans. Before then, SRO will stage its Nurburgring Endurance Cup round at the end of August, while the WEC still has races at Austin and Fuji.
The results of those events are likely to prove decisive in shaping the championship battles – and, ultimately, determining which programmes take priority when the Portimao-Barcelona weekend arrives.
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