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The 2026 World Endurance Championship title fight has been transformed by a dramatic Lone Star Le Mans at the Circuit of the Americas. Three of the leading cars failed to score heavily, turning what was expected to be a race that consolidated the championship order into a major reset with three rounds remaining.
Before the six-hour race, the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 and #7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid were tied on 75 points, while the #51 Ferrari 499P was 18 points behind in third. Toyota appeared set to establish a clear advantage when Nyck de Vries carried a comfortable lead in the #7 car he shared with Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi.
That opportunity disappeared less than 15 minutes before the chequered flag. Hydraulic problems affected the power steering, forcing de Vries into the pits and ending the car’s race. The failure was a major setback, but BMW could not exploit it fully: Robin Frijns and René Rast could manage only 12th in the #20 machine alongside Sheldon van der Linde.
The result also underlined how sharply BMW’s form had changed. The manufacturer had been widely viewed as a title favourite after its recent performances, yet the factory WRT entries were never in contention at Austin. It was BMW’s worst WEC weekend since last year’s Bahrain finale.
Ferrari took the biggest benefit from Toyota’s late retirement, although it was the #50 car—not the championship-leading #51 entry—that claimed victory. Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina delivered Ferrari’s first win since the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours after the crew had scored only 29 points across the opening four rounds.
The #51 Ferrari, shared by Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado, finished 11th. Its race was compromised by a pit-lane mistake when Giovinazzi accidentally shut down the car during the driver change, while the timing of the final safety car also worked against the crew. The point earned for pole position leaves the car fourth, 17 points from the lead.
The #8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley, Sébastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa is now just 11 points behind the joint leaders despite finishing sixth. Six crews from Toyota, BMW and Ferrari are separated by 21 points at the top of the drivers’ standings.
Toyota leads BMW by nine points in the manufacturers’ table, with Ferrari 24 points further back. As outlined in our Austin WEC preview, the race was expected to clarify the order. Instead, reliability concerns for Toyota and a lack of speed for BMW have made the championship far less predictable.
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.