Twelve months ago, a record-breaking crowd of almost 100,000 fans enjoyed what was widely acclaimed as one of the most exciting races in endurance racing history at Spa-Francorchamps. This weekend (7-9 May), an even more captivating contest looks to be in-store.
A truly iconic venue in the sport, Spa – nestled deep in Belgium’s Ardennes Forest – has been welcoming elite-level endurance racing for more than a century, and has been a staple of the FIA World Endurance Championship since the series’ inception. One of only two tracks to have featured in all 14 campaigns to-date – in company with Le Mans’ Circuit de la Sarthe – the forthcoming edition will make it the first to host 15 FIA WEC races.
A firm favourite amongst competitors and fans alike, Spa’s undulating, 7.004km rollercoaster-like layout is famous for inspiring awe-inspiring overtakes and breathtaking wheel-to-wheel duels, with Hypercar drivers changing gear 44 times per lap and reaching top speeds of 315km/h.
The region’s notoriously unpredictable weather can often play a role, and while qualifying is still important, it is arguably less critical at this circuit than elsewhere. As a case in point, none of the four class-winners in Belgium in 2024 or 2025 started the race on the front row.
The TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps represents round two of the 2026 season, and marks a special anniversary for FIA WEC’s headlining Hypercar division. Five years ago, the burgeoning category – presently disputed by eight major automotive manufacturers, with two more set to swell the fray in 2027 in the shape of McLaren and Ford – made its debut at the event.
In evidence of the class’ extraordinary growth, that inaugural campaign saw an average of 3.8 Hypercars per race. In 2026, there are 17 entries on a permanent basis – and the category is more competitive than ever.
Last year in Belgium, an astonishing 13 crews all finished on the lead lap – with the podium-occupying trio blanketed by barely five seconds – while at Imola just over a fortnight ago, an unprecedented 0.073 seconds covered the first four qualifiers in Hyperpole, as under half-a-second separated the entire top half of the field.
Three of the current Hypercar protagonists have previously reached the rostrum at Spa – Toyota, Ferrari and Alpine – with the former having triumphed there more often than not, counting eight victories to its credit in the Ardennes from 14 appearances. The only circuits where the Japanese carmaker boasts a better record than that are Bahrain and Fuji.
Four-time world champion Sébastien Buemi played a part in five of those successes, and the Swiss star is one of 29 previous Spa winners on the grid this weekend. He is also – in tandem with team-mates Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa – the early-season championship leader, after Toyota defeated defending title-holder Ferrari in the Maranello-based marque’s backyard.
Both the TS040 Hybrid and GR010 Hybrid prevailed on their maiden visit to Spa, while the recently-introduced TR010 Hybrid won on its competitive bow at Imola. Indeed, having topped the podium in the last race of 2025 and the first race of 2026, Toyota is Belgium-bound with its sights set on completing the hat-trick.
To do that, it will need to overcome a fired-up Ferrari, with the Prancing Horse determined to deliver a rapid response to being beaten on home soil. Despite a shaky start in free practice at Spa last year, the 499P proceeded to lock out the top three positions in Hyperpole and claim a one-two finish in the race – two of four rostrum results for the all-conquering Italian prototype in the event since joining the field in 2023.
In going on to clinch the world championship crown in 2025, Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi also became the first Hypercar drivers to win at Spa and take the title in the same campaign.
If Ferrari and Toyota are the favourites based on the form guide, then Alpine is the dark horse in the pack, after taking the chequered flag fourth in Italy and pushing its scarlet rivals all the way in Belgium last year. Les Bleus have finished on the overall podium at Spa three times from four attempts in Hypercar, marking their arrival in the series’ top-tier in 2021 by scooping the runner-up spoils. Saturday will be the French manufacturer’s 30th appearance in the class.
Cadillac can similarly be expected to be a contender in its 25th FIA WEC outing, having threatened to challenge Toyota and Ferrari at Imola prior to picking up a penalty for a yellow flag infringement. The American brand’s British partner, JOTA, is celebrating a milestone of its own – 80 starts in the championship – and made history at Spa two years ago as the first independent outfit to win a race outright in the Hypercar era. Louis Delétraz and Jack Aitken bolster the line-up this weekend.
The event will be home territory, meanwhile, for BMW M Team WRT, but the Belgian-run squad has not enjoyed much luck there, tallying just a single point to-date. The BMW M Hybrid V8s will be back to full strength on the driving front with the seasonal debuts of Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor – the latter one of two local stars in the Hypercar field, alongside Team Peugeot TotalEnergies’ Stoffel Vandoorne.
Ferrari swept both the Hypercar and LMGT3 categories at Spa for the first time in 2025 – increasing its overall total at the track to 12 victories across all FIA WEC classes – at the conclusion of a race that saw no fewer than ten different LMGT3 cars take a turn in the lead.
That list included the two Lexuses, after Finn Gehrsitz secured the Japanese marque’s maiden pole position in the series. The Akkodis ASP Team effort was again on the pace but cruelly out-of-luck in last month’s curtain-raising contest, when its pair of RC Fs retired from strong positions within a single lap of each other.
Home hero Tom Van Rompuy is part of the Lexus line-up in 2026, with countryman Maxime Martin heading into action in one of the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG entries. Imola winner Team WRT will likewise benefit from plenty of spectator support, while TF Sport – which finished scarcely a quarter-of-a-second behind the triumphant #69 BMW crew in the season-opener – ascended the rostrum in all six of its LMGTE Am appearances at Spa, but never graced the top step. In LMGT3, it will be seeking to set that record straight.
The on-track sessions will begin with free practice on Thursday, 7 May. Qualifying – and the all-important Hyperpole top ten shootout – starts at 14:30 CEST on Friday, 8 May, with the six-hour race getting underway at 14:00 CEST on Sunday, 19 April.
Check out all the key information regarding the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, including the full event timetable and entry list.
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